SANYAS.....

Man wanders through life, sometimes aimlessly, sometimes with am objective in sight/ mind.

The transition from birth to death is a voyage, a journey called Sanyas.

The famous hill shrine of Sabarimala, the abode of Lord Ayyappa, illustrates this by its philosophy – of that of “Thatwamasi” – Understand Youself - “Nee than deivam” – You are the god!!!

This is attained by ascending the 18 steps of the “Padinettam Padi” , not literally and physically – but more metaphysically. Each of the 18 steps point out to one of the dormant ‘wrongs’ in our system – like Kama (lust), Kroda (anger) ET All. Overcoming the 18 wrongs, one attains the summit (both of the temple and also the true understanding of our ‘self”) – Ahom – I,
where, etched in stone on the Temple wall, and to be etched in our minds through licks of fire – stands those words – “Thatwamasi”

In the Bible, you will find a parallel – “The kingdom of thy gods, thou shall find in thy own hearts”.

The “Flash” was discovered by me, thanks to a blogger, in the Bible again –
Revelation: Chapter 22 – which is the ‘essence’ of that holy book, and most others of parallel ‘religions’, wherever and whatever they might be.

All the methodologies adopted, fasting, abstinence ET All, are only to tune our mind and body to attain that frequency of vibration which would allow us to breach our own ‘shells’.

Sanyas, then, would have to maybe start before birth, and maybe conception???

Today we celebrate the birth of a great visionary, the Mahatma. Can we not tune inwards to see/ feel our country better, just like an attempt to see/ feel ourselves better???

M Kalipurayath
October 2008