வெள்ளி, 11 டிசம்பர், 2009

Padhukasahasram

Politics continued

(FromSri Kesava Iyengar’s introduction to his own “Thiruppaadukamaalai)

Politics has become the game of Letting Ioose animality on humanity. The game has In recent  years  developed  into  a  contagious disease and has taken an epidemic form.   Many  are the individuals and states that have  already  fallen victims to it.  The survivors  have. however, in  a sense of false, perhaps dubious,  security  taken  to building air-castles.   It does not seem unlikely that they will  soon be engaged in pumping  out  the  air and in that engagement pumping themselves out of their own castles.   The phenomenon is but  the truth of history repeating  Itself,   That history  is the history of the nemesis of cuius est  regio eius est religio.  To trace that history one has perhaps to go back  to  pre historic  days.   The  Danava emperor (42)  was, the  founder  and the  first pontifex rnaximus of that religion -the imperialistic religion  of geo-ethnic theocracy.    He incorporated the entire ge in Danava  ethnos  and founded  his universal empire in that incorporation.   That  was his constitution and his law  was  the law  of  that constitution.   Vedanta (Philosophy) was  repugnant to that Yaw and he therefore  repealed  philosophy in the omnicompetence of his Legislative rage.   He not merely put his Iaw on the statute book,  which to him in  his practical clarity was a mere euphemism for the dust-heap of the legislative chamber,  but expanded  all  his   imperialistic energy on the propagation of that law.  He took particular  care not  to  Ieave  in  doubt  the  import  of the all-  important  word “cuius” in that statute. He declared that 'cuius'  means  ‘Danava's’.   He being the primate of all  Danavas and therefore of the regio, the religio was, as It  must be,  his.   None else could  poach upon his preserves,  That the regio was his was to him a fact,  an ethnic fact, from which flowed in law the conse- quence of his  religio- the political religion  of  group-egoism, and geo- ethnic imperialism   Ex facto oritur jus  (from  fact arises law).  Good Logic and  good  law.   He  was so much convinced that there was no fault  in  that logic  and no flaw In that law, that  he convinced himself of  the  infallibility of his own  political  judgment and in that  infallibility  he  effected  the  repeal of ''philosophy” and enacted his “theocracy” into a Universal religion.   That was his rule of  law  and that law was to him immutable. He thought that his security was established in the immutability of the law which he enacted.  But alas ! it  proved to be, not a· law  but an  explosive,  which  in its explosion consumed its very discoverer. All later history is but the history of the recrudescence of that prehistoric explosion. Suffice  it to mention only one such recrudescence.  It was in the year 529 A. D. during the historic reign of the ' Roman" emperor, Justinian.   It was the fitting  culmination of the process of conflict and disintegration which had  already begun  centuries  before  with the capture of Alexandria by  the  Romans  and  which  functioned in that process to such completeness  as to result In  the  words  of  Vinogradoff  in  "the Romanization of the provinces and the barbarization of Rome''.  To  the  imperialistic  genius  of the Roman,  law  and engineering alone appealed.   They alone had a value to him.  All else, and particularly philosophy, were  wholly  barren  and  worthless. The emperor therefore codified law  and  crucified philosophy.   He had  all  schools of philosophy closed in 529 A. D.  and  Ieft  Europe  to  darkness and to ‘Iaw'.  The great plague of Europe followed soon after.   The plague was undoubtedly post hoc. Whether, however, it was propter hoc  Iet discerning students of history judge for themselves. The imperialistic could only close the colleges of philosophy, but he could not close the communion of philosophers. The philosophers migrated to the east leaving the west to its law and darkness. Ex oriente lux,ex occidente lex! (From the east light, from the west law!) The philosophers of the west came into communion with the philosophers of the east and the result of that communion was the restoration to the west by east after a lapse of nearly a thousand years of its light of philosophy in integrum. What a magnificent restitutio in integrum! Aristotle was preserved and commented upon by Averroes. That commentary in Latin translation became the second Bible of St.Thomas Aquinas. The service rendered to the cause of human culture by the Jewish philosophers, who were at once great thinkers and translators of great thought by their translations into Latin was unique. It was the very triumph of cultural fellowship over geo-ethnic obscurantism. That fellowship was a union and a republic of philosophy. It was a union in cordiality of the philosophic culture of the “Pagan” Aristotle, the “Moslem” Averroes, the “Jewish” Maimonides, and the “Dominican” St.Thomas aquinas. What a luminous galaxy, what an illuminating society, of noble souls! And yet man has taken to preaching and propagating the creed of darkness – the one darkness of barrack-burial, in the smoking bigotry of his geo-ethnic theocracy.

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42.: Hiranyakasipu: The above is an interpretation of the allegory. The
        story is an elucidation of the supremacy of universal oneness over
        individual and group egoism. It is an elucidation of the apparent
        paradox that the ethical process though born of the ‘cosmic’ process 
        is at enmity with its parent. It is an elucidation of the Upanishadic “Neti
        Neti”.

வியாழன், 10 டிசம்பர், 2009

Padhuka sahasram

“Politics” (continuing from the last posting)

That is the fate to which politics has been condemned by those engaged in it. It is not the work of a day,but is  the result of the accumulated sin of man committed in the course of centuries. No one man or group of men, secular or religious in particular.,more than another is to be blamed forit. It is common to all men and groups of men and they have all to share it alike. It is the rivalry between man and man, individually and in cliques, that has taken this ghastly form and brought about this tragic result The history of politics has for ages been the history of man's plots and intrigues against man. It has been the history of exploitations and usurpations of man by man, by force if he could, by fraud if he could not. Man first started the " game" by usurping God: for God was felt to be the common rival of all men, and therethey joined some in 'society', some in Contract'. (in which perhaps 'social contract' originated in getting rid of that comnnon rival and taking his "place". Some took it in place of God, others in denial of God. Both, however, took it liar themselves In that displacement God's omni~presence was usurped by man's ubiquitousness. In that ubiquitousness man has constituted the world a "theocracy" of his own. That theocracy became his religion. To some that religion was 'cuius est religio eius est regio' (whose isthe religion, his is the region). To others it was 'cuius est regio eius est religio' (Whose is the region, his is the religon). That is the religion as much of theocratic politics as of political theocracy.If theocracy is mediaeval politics, politics is modern theocracy. Each Is a'civitas dei', the one of the 'scholastic' types, the other of the 'round table' type. Each asserts its exclusive claim to the 'regio and its religio is the religion of that assertion That assertion is aggression. The odium of al poiltics, whether religious or secular, mediaeval or modern, is the odium of the. assertion of tha claim and of the aggression of that religion. That religion, though it looks like two, as the formula would suggest, is really one, and regionisrn is that one religion. That is the theocracy of the'regional' man. The law of that theocracy is as it must be regional - the law of regional trespass ant regional expansion. In that trespass and expansion man became a law unto himself, effected the repeal cl God's law, and constituted his exclusive theocracy in an autonomy of his own.  The warning voice of saints and sages against the constitution of that theocracy was wholly unheeded. Fictions and fables exploded by the mightiest of minds and the noblest of souls were ruthlessly explored and fanatically resurrected and constituted into states, and empires, and enforced as laws, national and international. Apostacy, in the true sense of the word, became the foundation of the legislative competency of man. It is the apostasy from God's law to man's code, the apostacy from truth to convention, the apostacy from status. to contract. The great legal maxim "communis error facit jus" (common error makes law) was the magna carte of that omnicompetence- the omnicompetence for trespass and usurpation of man by man in groups Those groups became states and they grouped themselves in internecine rivalry. It is that magna carte that has conferred on man the magnificent rights, in an International sense, of jus Immittendl, occupatio, usurpatio and in recent times of what may be termed 'oculatlo' The political achievement of man is the achievement, under the aegis that rnagna carta, of the freedom to function in the autonomy of that ubiquitous omnicompetance. It is the achievement of man's manumission from the protecting hand of God and of his passing into his own grabbing menus. It Is the political evolution of "a mob got to believe in its own divine right by demagogic missionaries, capable of  a  more thorough work than any single tyrant puffed up with the same illusion has ever achieved(41) in the words of Prof. Huxley. The 'demagogic missionaries' have in that evolution joined hands with dictatorial evangelists. State is the theocracy of those missionaries and evangelists. It is the glory of that theocracy that man has begun to sing in rival concerts of self-exultation. Thanks to the ministrations of the great god Boost, mankind is being very freely and altruistically glutted with counterfeit philosophy to such fullness as to leave in him very little appetite for genuine knowledge or true vision. Carlyle is said to have characterised the "pclltlcal" speeches of Gladstone and Disraeli as "the groanings of two old bag pipes". It was a charaeterisation. not of the two giants, but of their "political" propaganda. If the political speeches of Gladstone and Disraeli were to be so characterized it is feared that even Carlyle's words would fail him in his attempt to characterise the 'groanlngs" of the political thumpers of today.

(41): Evolution and Ethics Prolegomena.

                                ……………..To be continued………….

ஞாயிறு, 6 டிசம்பர், 2009

Padhuka sahasram

Introduction to “Thiruppadukamaalai”
    By Vaikunthavasi Sri R.Kesava Ayyangar

Last posting appeared on November 10, 2009  can be read

                                             from here

Politics

          The word “Politics” though it began well, has in course of time acquired an odium and has a tale to tell. In popular usage the word has a synonym for “dirty game”. One of its meanings, according to a writer on Politics, is “blind free fight”. The dictionary meaning of the phrase “engage in politics” is the “strife of rival parties”. Such is the modern meaning of the word, and that meaning tells its own tale. Predicting the nature and function of rulers in Kali age that holy sage Suka said “ Robbers in disguise” and “rulers will devour the people”(35)  The former is presumably their inter-statal, and the latter their inter-statal function. Historians and philosophers have borne testimony to the truth of the sage’s prophecy. Seneca complains :-  “we are mad not only individually, but nationally. Why do we restrain homicide and the murder of individuals but glory in the crime of slaughter which destroys whole nations? There are no limits to our greed, none to our cruelty. And as long as such crimes are committed by stealth and by individuals, they are less harmful and less portentous; but cruelties are practised in accordance with acts of senate and popular assembly, and the public bidden to do that which is forbidden to the individual” (36). To such rulers and states Seneca and Lucan have given the appellation of “robbers” (37). Cicero says:- A pirate being asked by Alexander from what wicked motive he infested the sea replied “from the same which leads you to infest the whole world” (38) Quintus Curtius cites the instance of Alexander to whom the Scythian ambassador said “You pretend to be the punisher of robbers and are yourself the general robber of mankind” (39). Lactantius says” Men captivated with appearance of vain glory give the names of virtues to their crimes”(39) Speaking of Philip, Justin says:-“ In deciding a dispute between two rival kings he stripped both of their dominations with all the treachery and violence of a robber.”(39)  According to Seneca, states were “bribed into bondage” by Philip and “ruined” by Alexander (40). He adds other names also to the list in that Epistle. The sage Suka, in his infinite mercy for mankind, has not stopped with the horrowing description, but has also prescribed the remedy for it. That remedy is, in substance, the service of man in his freedom from selfdom. That service is the theme of the author’s poem

                         …………………To be continued
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(35). Bhagavata XII. 12 .12; XII 13.32.  (36) Epistles XCV (37) Seneca. On Benefits !.13.3 Cf Hugo Grotius on War and Peace Book II Ch.I wherein they are quoted. (38) Republic. Book III. 15& 23 quoted in Hugo Grotius, ibid. (39) Quoted in Hugo Grotius on War and Peace and in Campbell’s Note. Book II Ch 1. pp.174 and 175. V. 1.1: Cf. also Kelsey’s Note ibid Justin calling them “Robbers” is quoted. (40) Epistles XCIV
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சந்தவசந்தத்திலிருந்து

கூகுள் முழுமத்தில் சந்தவசந்தம் என்னும் ஒரு குழு. மரபுக்கவிதை அங்கு மிகவும் கற்றறிந்த தமிழ்வல்லார்களால் தினமும் அரங்கேறும். திரு அனந்த் எழுதி இன்று வந்திருக்கும் ஒரு பகுதி இங்கே.

http://www.mayyam.com/unicode/cgi-bin/t2u.cgi?url=http://hubmagazine....
மரபில் நகைச்சுவை - 35

- அனந்த்

முன்குறிப்பு: தானோ பிறரோ தேர்ந்தெடுத்த துணையோடு இல்லற வாழ்க்கை நடத்துவோரின்பெருமையை வள்ளுவர் பெருமான் அறத்துப் பாலில், இல்லறவியல் என்னும் தலைப்பில், இல்வாழ்க்கை என்னும் அதிகாரத்தில் (--அதிகாரம் யாருக்கு என்று அன்னார்குறித்திலர்-), அழகுபடப் பத்துக் குறட்பாக்களில் கூறியுள்ளார். அந்தப் பாக்களை ஒட்டி, எமக்குத் தெரிந்த இல்வாழ்க்கைச் சிறப்பை யாம் எடுத்துரைக்க விழைந்தனம். அதன் விளைவாக எழுந்த குறட்பாக்களை உங்களோடு பகிர்ந்து மகிழவும் அவாக் கொண்டனம். கீழே காணும் குறட்பாக்கள் வள்ளுவனார் தந்த அதே வரிசையில் (-பத்தாவது பாட்டைத் தவிர-), அவற்றின் சொல்லழகும் சுவையும் குன்றாவண்ணம் அமைக்கப்பட்டவை,(என யாம் நம்புகின்றனம்). ஐயமுறுவோர் திருக்குறளைக் கையிலேந்தி ஒப்பிடுவாராக.

<> இல்(லா) வாழ்க்கை <>

இல்வாழ்வான் என்பான் மணம்புரியா நண்பர்கள்
  எல்லோர்க்கும் சோறளித்தல் ஏற்பு (1)

துறந்தாரும் தூரத்து உறவான பேரும்
  கறந்திடுவார் இல்வாழ்வான் காசு (2)

தன்புலனில் தாரத் துடன்பகைத்த நண்பனுக்கு
  உன்புலமே வீடென் றுணர்

பழியஞ்சிப் பாத்தூண் உடைத்தாயின் வாழ்க்கை
அழியாமற் காத்தல் அரிது (4)

துன்பும் துயரும் உடைத்தாய இல்வாழ்க்கை
முன்பிருந்த ஜாலிக்(கு) எதிர் (5)

கடனெனக் காண்பதே இல்வாழ்க்கை அ·தை
உடன்தீர்க்க இல்லை வழி (6)

வறுத்தாட்டி இல்வாழ்க்கை வாட்டிடின் வாயில்
புறத்தேபோய்க் கூவென் றழு (7)

இயல்பினான் இல்வாழ்க்கை வாழ்வோன் களிப்பிற்கு
அயலாகி நிற்கும் அசடு (8)

ஆற்றொழுக்கு நாசிக் குழவிசேர் இல்வாழ்க்கை
  நோற்பாரின் நோன்மை உடைத்து (9)
(நோன்மை = தவம், பெருமை, பொறுமை, வலி; இங்கு இறுதிப் பொருளில் பயிலும்)

கடிஜோக்குக் கேற்றதோர் கேலிப் பொருளாய்
அடிபடும்இல் வாழ்வான் தலை (10)

******
இலக்கணக் குறிப்பு: திருக்குறளைப் போன்ற ஈரடி, 7 சீர்ப் பாடல்கள் பலநகைச்சுவைக் கவிதைகளைப் பார்த்திருக்கிறோம். இந்த மின்னிதழில் முன்னம் வெளியான என்னுடைய சில ’கடிக்குறள்’ பாக்களைப் (அடியும் முடியும் <http://www.mayyam.com/unicode/cgi-bin/t2u.cgi?url=http://hubmagazine....>, இன்னா பத்து<http://www.mayyam.com/unicode/cgi-bin/t2u.cgi?url=http://hubmagazine....>) போல, மேலுள்ள பாடல்கள் குறள் வெண்பாவின் இலக்கணம் வழுவாமலும், மேலதிகமாகத் திருக்குறள் ’இல்வாழ்க்கை’ அதிகாரத்திலுள்ள பாடல்களின் அமைப்பைக் கூடியவரை பின்பற்றியனவாகவும் இருப்பதைப் பார்க்கலாம்.

இலக்கணமல்லாத குறிப்பு: முன்குறிப்பில் காணும் தமிழ் நடையைக் கண்டு ஓடாமல் இதுவரை படித்ததற்கு நன்றி. ”மரபில்” நகைச்சுவை என்ற தலைப்பைக் கண்டு நுழைந்தபின், இத்தகைய தமிழ் நடையைக் கண்டு பயந்தால் எப்படி?