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Oh My God! Episode 12

Discussion in 'Saturdays with Varalotti' started by varalotti, Jun 12, 2009.

  1. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Hema,
    You are right, Hema. I had decided to do away with the epilogues when your post came. I then decided to write an apology to you. I had even framed the words. And FC came out in a flash. My Lord has been kind enough to give something for OMG 13 as well. Nothing has happened so far for OMG 14. I am just waiting for the call.

    Kamban's story is a lesson on God's love as well as one on perseverance and determination. Though I knew the story earlier I did not venture to post till I got it verified in Koil Ozhugu Part 5 which describes the whole incident in bits and pieces. I reported the incident verbatim. But liberally translated the dialogues for the modern world.

    Reading this gave goosebumps to me. I was struggling between two different episodes and was waiting for some indication to choose one between them. These words finalised the choice. You will know that on 26th June, when I post OMG 14.

    I have rarely used smilies before because I have been thinking that words do the job better than smilies. I think responding to your above statement is an exception.
    And my response is

    :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown :bowdown
    thanks for the nice fb, Hema. Looking forward to see you in OMG 13.
    love,
    sridhar
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2009
  2. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Aruna,
    Oh thanks for seconding Hema on the issue of epilogues. I leave it to Him to decide on the epilogue.
    I am happy that I have made a Tamilian to know about Kamban better. As a country India had a rich culture, whether it is North or South or East or West. We had a Kamban in Tamil, a Tulsidas in Hindi a Gnanadeva in marathi and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in Bengali, each representing respectively South, North, West and East.
    Let us be proud of our country's culture, Aruna.
    thanks for the nice fb. See you in OMG 13 which has already been posted.
    love,
    sridhar
     
  3. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sudha,

    There is absolutely no need for you to be sorry for the delay. For my delay in responding to your fb has been even greater. so if you say sorry once, I will have to say it two times.

    There are great people like Kamban in every branch of our country's great culture. The Lord coming down to help Kamban shows his immense love. And knowing about such love drives all our worries and sorrows. That was my purpose in telling his story.

    I am happy that you relish the epilogues written by me. I was a little hesitant at first because reading the episode and epilogue might eat into your time. Now I am convinced. However I will write only when I have something solid to share with you all.

    Now about the blessing, Sudha. As far as I know age is not a necessary condition for blessing someone. Only love is. In our Sri Vaishnava tradition we have the beautiful practice of even elders falling at the feet of younger people.
    so you can still extend your hand, place it on my head and bless with all the love in your heart, so that I will write better.
    thanks for the kind fb, Sudha.
    love,
    sridhar
     
  4. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Ramya,

    You are most welcome.

    Even when the couple have the utmost trust and love in each other these minor things can't be avoided. Because they have trust and love this discomfort did not develop into a grudge or a strain in relationship. I find this feeling of insecurity especially in the wives of celebrities.

    The presence of another woman, especially when she is acclaimed to be more beautiful, poses a threat to a woman's security. There is no real threat as Arvind is blameless. But there is a perceived threat as what is in action is the primordial feelings. To beautify oneself before the encounter.. well that's a sort of defence mechanism. This is a universal practice which I have observed in almost all the women.

    Actually blessed and loving souls have to undergo a lot of troubles. When a person is very loving and devoted God wants to hasten his spiritual evolution. So the growth pangs are higher. In a way God doubles the heat in the oven so that the cooking time is halved. That creates all these problems. But God has a policy of not giving us any problem without supplying the wherewithal to fight it, well in advance.

    FC has wrecked many happy lives. Giving a name to the phenomenon makes our fighting with it much easier.
    Happy to see that you enjoyed the episode as well as the epilogue.
    OMG 13 has already been posted. See you there soon.
    love,
    sridhar

     
  5. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Pooja,
    The small "J" feeling is a kind of reality check for the ideal couple. Of course it vanished in no time because of the love Yamini had for Arvind. But it was a pain when it subsisted. Yamini won over it very soon.

    It's not a question of luck. Not even of hard work. It's God's Grace for which we cannot pin point any reason. Do you know that God's Grace can't be win over by our efforts? Not even by the holiest of sacrifices? Not by hardwork, or by any other factor? It comes on its own. The only thing we can do is not to block it with out ego when it comes down to us.

    Kamban had His grace in abundance. Otherwise he could not have composed such an epic. There are Kamban Kazhagams in almost every town in Tamilnadu. Yet we have not yet fully understood Kamban's greatness.

    contrary to what many people think words and thoughts are very powerful. That's why as a culture we set a lot of value to blessings and greetings. Kamban's words in describing the antidote to Lakshmana's poison was so powerful that the poison from the boy's body got down in the same way.

    In those days when children had jaundice they will be taken to an old "maantrikan" in a place called Achampathu near Madurai. The person who will be practising the art for generations will chant some mantras and finally touch a needle at the sick person's body and immerse it in the water kept before him. The water would turn yellow in no time. Which means the jaundice had gone out of the system.

    I am happy that you don't mind the extra time you spend in reading the epilogues. Will continue to post them so long as I have the ideas.

    RV is residuary violence which we saw in the epilogue in OMG 11. I have devoted a whole epilogue to that concept.
    Please have a look at it.
    OMG 13 has been posted. See you there.
    love,
    vara
     
  6. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Aparna,
    It is I who should say Sorry For The Delay. You know I had to respond to the 4 year greeting thread and had to leave the town for a mini holiday on Thursday itself. That's the reason I could not respond to your post earlier.

    When the marriage is active and forceful you can never escape that twinge of jealousy. You will be surprised, I have seen it even in older men and women. That's the law of nature.

    Kamban had planned a humble eventless book-release function for his epic. But God thought otherwise. He thought that the poets work deserved nothing less than an earth-shaking reception. That's why he let a snake do the job in Chidambaram and He himself laughed and approved the poets work. You say it is hair-rising when you read my account of the happenings. If only you had read the Kambars 176 verses, especially the one that depicts the birht of Narasimhar, your tears would never stop.

    Surprisingly the God with the fiercest appearance - half lion and half man is the most loving form of God, as we are going to see Him again in OMG 14.

    Thanks for approving the epilogues. Now I have a clear policy of having an open mind for them. If I get a new idea, yes there will be an epilogue. Otherwise no.
    Thanks for your congratulatory message on my completing 4 years here in IL.

    OMG 13 has been posted. Will see you there soon.
    love,
    sridhar
     
  7. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    dear bas,
    Where did you get all these great smilies? They were simply dancing before me and left me with no option than to hurry up with my response, which this time is really overdue. My schedules are very finely balanced. So when the anniversary thread came in and the Kodai trip came in it got pushed over and I am now more than a week behind in replying to the fb. I apologize for the delay.


    bas, if only you had the opportunity to read those songs.... well it is not taking pains, but enjoying some divine pleasure all because of you. I got the correct emotions out no doubt. But I was immensely enriched by the experience of reading those verses. Actually I will have to
    [​IMG]

    I can understand the J feeling you have. But if it is a matter of consolation, let me tell you all these gems I learnt long after my schooling and collegiate education. In schools and colleges we are violently forced by the system to memorize something that we lose taste for that. In fact I had hatred for Thirukkural ever since the day a boring Tamil teacher tried to force it on me. Only much later after several years of practice did I properly learn some 100 kurals and only then did I know that there is nobody like Thiruvalluvar. When a youth organisation called me for a two hour lecture to the young people (in their twenties) I chose the topic Vaazha vaikkum Valluvam and talked to them about the kurals I enjoyed reading.
    I am blowing my own trumpet only to impress upon you that even now it is not late. You can start reading the classics.

    Hats off to you. A very pertinent observation. I was thinking of a 3-episode pattern. In fact I had lined up to 15 episodes under the same pattern. But it got broken when I introduced malya's story for two weeks at a stretch. I had OMG 13 fully ready and at the last minute I dropped it and wrote an episode anew.
    There may be patterns in OMG series. But we do not have the mind to recognise them. I have left the matter to His safe hands.

    This fb was an inspiration to me. Thanks a lot for that, bas.
    love,
    boost
     
  8. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Kamla,
    Well, in a way, we are in the same boat. I too had not heard of all the troubles of Kambar except a part of the 3000 Dikshithar's story. I got to know the information from the Koil Ozhugu Book I purchased recently. Somehow I had the urge to complete the book immediately. Two of the episodes of OMG came from that authoritative book. Without in any way tampering with the contents I provided a package, especially of the material which would enable me move the story from 9th century to the 21st century.

    You are right. After living donkey's years in this dog eat dog world I know only one thing for sure. We have let down God many times. And that too at the slightest provocation. And He has never let us down. Not even once. It is only this basic wisdom that made me took the daring step of writing about His love.

    Thanks for the nice words you have about my epilogues as well. I also realise that I am slowly eating into more and more of your time by long episodes and longer epilogues. So from OMG 13 onwards I have imposed on myself a 10-part limit (or one page) for both episodes and epilogues put together.
    Well, I am not going to compromise on the quality or language. If the episode is longer (as it happens to be for OMG 14) I will carry it over to Part II which will come out as a separate episode.
    thanks for the nice fb, Kamla.
    love,
    sridhar
     
  9. imemyself

    imemyself Senior IL'ite

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    Dear Sridhar,
    The incidents in Kamban's life is so heartening! I was feeling rather sad and wondering why God made him wait for 4 years and made him go through so many turmoil before helping him get his work published. And these lines....
    "Devi, those billion petitions are all based on selfish interests. This poet is doing our work. He has created an epic in our honour and should we not do something for him?”
    I was wondering why God dint realise it before and why He had to wait for 4 years to realise it! But the incident which led to Kamban recite his work...made me relate..that maybe God wanted Kamban to save the life of a kid and show the purity and divinity of the work. Maybe that was the best way to bring out the essence of the work.

    And the eipilogue... was indeed a superb thought! Yes...this happens so much and as u said..it is very cancerous!

    I simple awe at the way u try to get such human thoughts like RV, FC into words! :)
    Great thought indeed to be brought out and we always learn out of it!

    With Prayers,
     
  10. varalotti

    varalotti IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Jaya,
    The efforts taken by Kamban to publish his work.. well they are not only heartening, but inspiring and encouraging too.
    God's idea of making him wait for 4 years is to flare up the intensity in his heart about his work. And secondly God knows what's the right time for every work to come out. The four years period is a kind of penance by Kambar.
    Jaya, we all think that penance or Tapas is something that Rishis do in the forest. No. It is what we have to do every day. We might have done some exemplary work. But our boss might not acknowledge that properly. We would have showered our love on our life partner. And that would have gone unrecognised, unreciprocated and at times even shunned at. What do we do then? If we simply shout at our boss or turn our love for our partner into hatred.. well we are out of this game. We will only have a life of misery and grief. We should patiently wait for the right time. And keep remembering God's love all the time. That patient waiting is called Tapas. At the end of the penance God would appear before us and would give us much more than we can even dream of.
    That's what happened to Kambar. That's happening to us. Whether we are going to quit or do Tapas.. well it is something that is directly in our hands.

    Thanks for liking the epilogues. I want them to be used as footnotes to the great book called life. When we come to a difficult part in the book where we do not understand how the author got this thought we immediately look for any footnotes. Then we get the idea and move on. I want us to do the samething with life. Hence these epilogues.

    thanks once again for the kind fb.
    love,
    sridhar
     

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