Yet another Avatar

Holi is one of our most colourful festivals. Colourful in the literal sense of the term. It is a time for rejoicing, happy get-togethers, feasting and saying adieu to the dreadful winter and welcoming the beautiful spring. But somewhere down the line, the Holi festivities have been taken over by the hooligans and today in some of the North Indian cities nobody ventures out on the day of Holi for fear of being roughed up by the thugs. Their method of celebrating Holi includes throwing balloons filled with dirty stuff, paper bags filled with faecal matter etc. The colouring stuff is made up of harmful chemicals that cause severe skin problems thus creating a huge demand for dermatologists! Some colours do not rub off till the next holi! These colours also change hues with every bath like the old ‘Bleeding Madras’ shirts!

It is sad to note that the celebration of New Year Eve is taking a similar turn in Chennai. The hours preceding the break of New Year are virtually in the hands of highly inebriated youth who go on a rampage. A Maruti car, for instance, parked outside the Taj was smashed by the miscreants last year. Eves are not teased but tormented by the roadside Romeos. The Police come out with stern warnings against the miscreants and these warnings create no impact on the thugs but succeed in forcing the law-abiding citizens to stay at home! Several of my friends prefer to stay indoors and watch the muck dished out by the numerous TV channels rather than getting bashed up outside.

But with the city already in the grip of the New Year fever, I was witness to an interesting incident at Adayar. The roads were choked with high density traffic and even the pedestrians were finding it difficult to move faster than a snail. Two-wheelers were sandwiched between the milling pedestrian crowd and the city buses. One scooterist nearly lost his life when a bus pulled up so close beside him that his knee brushed against the tyre of the bus. In sheer panic and disgust he aimed a kick at the side of the bus. Two of the passengers of the bus who were drunk jumped down from the moving bus and engaged the scooterist in a wordy duel. Putting pieces of the conversation together, I could make out that the action of the scooterist angered them because they felt that a kick aimed at the bus was a kick aimed at them being occupants of the bus at the material time. Suddenly one of the thugs delivered a violent blow on his head which could have laid him lifeless but for the helmet he was wearing. Before the scooterist could recover from the initial shock, they started punching him on the chest and back and we were standing there helpless and paralysed. The scooterist pleaded with them with folded hands not to hit him but in vain.

Just then two men came that way on a mobike, got down from the vehicle and ascertained from the onlookers the reason for the scuffle. They then turned on the thugs and gave them such a thrashing the like of which I have seen only in Rajnikanth movies. As the crowd around rejoiced at this sudden appearance of the good Samaritans and the deliverance of the innocent man, I found myself focusing on the two men. I suddenly found the vision around me dissolving into an ethereal landscape and the two men fusing into a formless light. I heard a faint recitation of

Yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glaanir-bhavati Bhaarata/
Abhyttaana-madharmasya tadaatmaanam srijaamyaham//
Paritraanaaya saadhoonam vinaasaaya cha dushkritaam/
Dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavami yuge yuge//

I realised that the two men represented the fulfillment of the Lord’s Promise. In them, I could perceive yet another Avatar. I was filled with a strange glow and I looked forward to another New Year with greater confidence.

 

Dear Kamla
I am so happy to receive that response as the first one to my thread. I have tried to convey that there is no need to seek God through the toughest of penance. He manifests Himself day in and day out through such acts as I have described and all that we need to do is to keep our eyes open.
But when even such evolved souls like Adi Sankara could not see the Lord in the untouchable that he encountered in Kashi until the Lord threw him a probing question, what are we,the lowly mortals, to complain about?
But as you have rightly pointed out,as long as the Sun rises and sets, let us keep our faith in the goodness around us!
And I wish you too and your family a happy, prosperous and healthy New Year!
Sri

 

Dear AC
I agree with you that the bad things that keep happening around us depress us no end. Though we blame it on Kali Yuga, we can't help getting agitated by such incidents. But let us remember that promises are broken only by the humans but not the Divine. We must keep our faith in His promise. I see Him in several incidents around me such as what I have narrated in my thread.
When the mighty come to the rescue of the weak, I see His presence there.
When someone leads a blind across the road, I see Him there. No good thing can happen where He is not manifest.
Sri

 

Dear Ramya
You have captured the essence of what I tried to convey through a long exposition in a short and lucid sentence 'The divine incarnation can be felt in all his creations if patiently viewed and accepted. '

The episode of Lord Mahaveera is indeed an eye opener. The profundity of his teaching that 'Violence is inherent in the very opening of the human eyes' shows what a great apostle of non violence he was. Thank you for embellishing my thread with a very ennobling feed back. What more is needed than to redidicate ourselves to such noble thoughts on the eve of this New Year!

You are indeed blessed to have been endowed with a very mature thought process at such a young age. People like you add a lot of lustre to IL.

I wish you all the very best in the New Year!
Sri

 

Dear Chithra
Please be assured that I have no intention to change my Avatar from the Owl! I think that I am the only one in IL who uses this Avatar!
Your switch over from Deivam Manushya Roopena to Manushyan Deiva Roopena sounds very significant. It reminds me of a song of Kannadasan, 'Manithan enbavan deivamagalam'. The qualities that deify a man are spelt out beautifully in that song. It is difficult for a man to attain Divine status. It is even more difficult to identify the God among men!
Most of us have been trained to look for God in Temples, mosques and Churches but not among us. Most of us associate Gods with some distinguishing features. All these make it difficult for us to identify Him even if He travels with us in a train or a plane!
I and Indra wish you and my good friend Vish all the very best in 2008!
Sri