Kailash-10

"Thayumanvan" is the name of the Lord at a temple in Tiruchirapalli (Trichy) in Tamil Nadu. Translated, this means, He who also became mother. The story goes that one of His devotee ladies was in her labour pain at which time her own mother was not available for help in her delivery. The Lord came to the devotee's help, as her mother, and performed midwifery. The name of the Lord is thus derived. "Ardhanariswarar" is another name for the Lord; it means Lord who is half female. Of course there are many different stories attributed to this form of the Lord. The reason why I am drawing attention to these names is obvious; is the Lord male or female? If you read my earlier posts also, I have referred to the Supreme Reality as "He" not "She". Does it mean that there gender bias for God as well ?!!

In spirituality or philosophy, gender is only an anatomical difference. We are born into a specific gender in the present embodiment, as a result of the predominant gunas or tendencies coupled with the residual desires subsisting in us (or our parents) from our previous embodiment. Scientifically of course, we will be told that, it is the result of X+X or X+Y chromosomes, but let us leave that part to the scientists for the time being. Essentially we are all divine. Our gender reality at birth, in no way, takes us away from our essential divinity. If you recollect one of my earlier posts, I had highlighted about names and forms. Driven by our anatomical conditioning, we have got a form and therefore a name suitable to that form was given by our parents. It is a different matter altogether that there are some effeminate men and some masculine women !! That is probably the result of their gunas or tendencies !!.  Essentially, divinity is gender free. We are one with the Supreme Reality without any gender bias. Obviously therefore the Supreme must also be free of such bias. Parameshwara cannot be complete without Parameshwari. Where He is Appan (Father); She is Amma (Mother). One cannot be thought of in another breath different from the Other. In legal languages, we often say that, wherever in the context, He appears, it must also be read as She. When we use such uniformity in our own transactional world, there cannot be any differentiation in spirituality either. The Supreme Reality blesses one and all without any distinction of color, creed, caste, gender. The form and name that appeals to our conditioned thinking, determines the name, form and gender of that Reality, but THAT itself is one without a second. 

Mr Krishnan mentioned in his response last week that spirituality is such that we will find it difficult to get answers for all our questions that haunt us during a lifetime. But how can we find answers unless we ask questions in the first place. The moot question being "Who am I?". Every other question that comes to our mind would be an extension of this query. Our quest to find ourselves, takes us in different directions; each one only in search of Happiness and Peace. Our presence here in this embodiment is but a small dot in an otherwise long journey of coming and going, and in the process gradually diminishing our identifications with "raaga" and "dvesha"; i.e. attachment and repulsion. Our engagement with this pair of opposites keeps our mind and intellect engaged in this constant journey back and forth. Once this engagement has ended; once we have found the answer to "Who am I", there is no more any need to undertake this journey. All our acts on the physical plane should be meant only for a gradual expurgation of this engagement. 

Today is the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore; a spiritual, literary and poetical giant. One of his famous quotes reads like this."faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark". If we reflect on this carefully and understand from our daily routine, it becomes clear. Most of us are used to alarm clocks to wake us up. Our knowledge of science tells us that around 5 am to 530 am is the time when the day dawns. Assuming we have woken up to the alarm clock, at say 4.30, after seeing the clock we know that in another hour, it will be dawn. Our faith is conditioned by our knowledge about the clock and science. However, the bird that is sitting on the branch, has no clock and no science. It has got perception that in a short while it will surely be dawn, so it starts chirping outside our window. At that time, hearing the bird chirping, we too know that it will be dawn shortly. The bird has full faith about the dawn whereas we have got derived faith. Let us reinforce our faith in Him (or Her!!) like that bird and grow into our inner peace. Parameshwara is always there, it is our perception which will help us reach Him.