Kabir and Kural

                             

Who in this world does not want to feel good? In every interaction, every conversation, every relationship, every experience that we encounter, we search for goodness and happiness. It is a normal human trait; without exception. I have been a recipient of this munificence of goodness from many people in life.

                                       

Technology can be extolled or criticized, as one may perceive it; but this technology has become my platform for sharing goodness with a diverse set of people over the last 3 months and more. I started out writing on Kabir’s Dohas late in May, and shared that on Whatsapp with a few contacts. Within a few days I added Thirukkural by Thirvalluvar. Alternating between the two, I have been posting a daily thought through Whatsapp, Facebook and Emails, to many known and some unknown people.  I have borrowed the original thought from these Saints’ writings, and made a short interpretation in my own words, to suit present context or match with present times. It has been a fulfilling and enjoyable journey

                         

                        

Both these saints wrote masterpieces on ethics of living, how to be happy, what is good, etc. In short, their works are more a guide to good living than anything else. They lived in different time eras and were geographically apart, but there is great synergy in their teachings. It only goes to prove that values of life haven’t changed with development of society. In fact, as development happened, the need for storing and living those values are far more relevant and necessary.

Thirvalluvar (also called Valluvar) was born in Nagercoil (Tamil Nadu) somewhere between 2^nd century BC and 8^th century AD. Even if we assume 8^th century AD, that is about 1300 years ago. Kabir was born in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) in 15^th century AD, i.e. about 600 years ago. Two spiritually evolved literary stalwarts, set apart by 7 to 10 centuries, couldn’t be more nearer to teaching values of life, as they were.

Valluvar wrote a treatise called “Thirukkural” which contains 1330 stanzas of 7 words each, in short, “Kural”. Kural means voice. Literally this treatise was the voice of goodness and ethics. It was written in Tamil, which has a history of being probably the only non-sanskrit originating language in India. The Tamil he used is very difficult to decipher, but once understood, they are rich in suggestive meanings.

Kabir wrote poems, songs and couplets. His couplets, called Kabir Dohas, are the most popular of his writings. He used a mix of various local dialects of colloquial Hindi, therefore his language was very easy to understand, although in using Avadhi and Bhojpuri words, he preferred using satire. He believed in drawing the attention of his audience through a negative criticism of people with wrong tendencies; which enabled his audience to draw inference on the opposite positive side, as to how to live life.

As a closing tribute to this piece, I am sharing their sayings and my commentary on those, on one common point. I hope to do a compare on what these masters say on a few other topics, in the course of the next few months.

              Sant Kabir                                                                Thirvalluvar

                              

        Prem & OmSuresh

Time and Punctuality

What is time? 

What is Punctuality?

Punctuality, as we normally understand, is to do with honoring a commitment at an agreed time. But there is another aspect to punctuality; and that is about honoring your commitment, per se. We will not deal with the second part here, because there’s probably a school of thought which believes that should not be called punctuality. We’ll let that rest for the time being.

“Time” has no definition in any dictionary. Time is what time does or that which is. If I were to ask five different questions with “time” in it, I am sure the answers in each would be different. For instance: -

1.       What time is it?          - This speaks about clock time

2.       Give me some time     - This is a request for some attention/involvement

3.       My time is not good     - This is about the situation in life at the moment

4.       My time has come       - This is a terminal situation

5.       When time is no more - Does this talk about doomsday?

Punctuality, in the way we are dealing with, means, when I give a commitment to arrive or depart at a given clock time or do a task within an agreed clock time, I honor that commitment. In that respect punctuality is only a measure of how one person has used clock time to accomplish a given commitment. Viewed in that perspective does punctuality as a concept, become “robotic”? Food for thought, isn’t it?

Many years ago, when I wasn’t qualified, one of my future clients, who had an association with Germans, chided me for coming late for an appointment. As a youngster, I took his admonishments to heart and in my immaturity, told myself that I’d not work for him ever. It is quite a different thing that over 2 ½ decades of practice, we became so close that we learnt off each other, and in the bargain, grew ourselves internally. Later in practice, as I tried to keep up my commitment to be present at meetings within the agreed clock time, I developed irritability at others keeping me waiting. It is then probably that I realized, punctuality means differently to different people.

Returning to Time, Vedanta says, Time is born in the interval between two thoughts. 

When there are no thoughts, there is no time. Think. 

Actually our lives are nothing other than a basket of past, present and future moments. Regretting over unhappy or unpleasant past moments, anxious about yet-to-be-born future expected moments and excited about what we are engaged in the present moment, we forget who we are and what are capable of; leading our lives without knowing the purpose for which we have arrived in this world. Drawing a Balance Sheet of our Life at the end, we wonder, where am I and what did I do? This introspection is a necessary part of our lives, in day-to-day living, to enable us to become happy and contented.

Concluding, I would say, Time, as we understand in daily living is only a tool of measurement. Punctuality’s sole intent is to maximize the happiness at the present moment, which is the only moment available with us, until Time with us, shall be no more.

Prem & Om

Suresh