WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. This is a journal blog, an explore-blog, a bit of this and that blog. Sharing where the mood takes me. Perhaps it will take you too.

Menoculayshunal; The Intellectual Feast List

Before starting this post properly, I just wanted to share with you an image I hunted frantically through the archives for last week and failed to find. Typically, it turned up when I was looking for something else later in the week. Sums up menoplyxinaemia, really. Anyway, it was one of only two images I have of Nandi in the Jagadeeshwara mandir at Sandeepany. Not entirely sure why it meant so much to find it for you, but here it is. Nandi is a guardian but also a vehicle. A protector and a conveyor. When circumambulating the garbha, devotees might stop and whisper in the ear to have their prayers communicated by this intermediary to the Lord. It may just be the Taurean in me, but I love Nandi...

(I decided to do a retrospective of my Indian photographs through July over at My Take bloggy. and other Nandi's will appear there in due course... Keep your eyes on that one from Thursday!)


As I sat to prepare this post, I wondered where to wander next and realised that this weekly memoir, which was begun with no clear focus, is not as random as I had thought it might seem. There was the arrival, some rationale, the setting and the settling, the nourishment of the body (food), a little more rationale and, latterly, the arrangement of the average day. Occasional dips into the memoir pure. It's all still rather scene-setting with a slight brush with a character or two. I think it has to continue in this vein as I build up to the deeper, much more personal aspects. ... I realise that I am along for this ride as much as you, the reader, and like most writers, even though I know outcomes according to the plot, I am still eager to uncover any little gems or revelation. Thinking out loud does that for one. 

In short, there is a sort of catharsis going on here. Following the departure from India, I had no time at all to properly decompress. Two months back in OZ before repatriating to the Bonny Land after thirty years apart. In the seven-plus years back here, much of my time has been taken up - as most of you are aware - with duty to family.  This is fine - but now I have to come to terms within myself on various matters, not least my life as a Vedantin. 

It is my anchor, and it has been dragging a bit as the storms of life buffeted. It has stabilised me, albeit with a ding or two here and there. Now it is time to relax and repair and lift that anchor to sail back into the deeper sea. That is what prompted the resurrection of Aatmaavrajanam bloggy. Some of the personal discipline and routine is returning. But that is, once more, a rationale. A sift and sort of thoughts. Let me say, to round off this post, and about the content of a regular day back in Sandeepany, there were a lot of texts to get through. To give you an idea, here's an indication of what was included. 

You already learned, of course, that Sanskrit and Vedic chanting were on the curriculum, but the bulk of the study was the various writings of Vedanta, both ancient and more recent (as in those of Adi Shankara).  It is to be acknowledged that many of the suktams and mantras learned are, of themselves, texts, but they are not necessarily Advaitic. Previously, I mentioned the Sadhana Panchakam as the first we embarked upon. There were also the Tattva Bodha, Atma Bodha, Upadesh Sara, Bhaja Govindam and the Keno Upanishad as foundations. We built up with Drg-Drshya Viveka, Vivekachudamani, Vakya Vritti, Panchadashi (Selected Chapters), Advaita Makaranda, Vedanta SaraH, Saddarshanam, Hastamalaka Stotram, Manisha Panchakam, Dakshinamurti Stotram... then into the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, including Isha, Katha, Mundaka, Aitereya, Taittiriya, Prashno, Mandukya (+Karika), Chandogya, Kaivalya, AmRta Bindu and Shvetashvatara. Many devotional texts, the already mentioned Bhagavatam, the Narada Bhakti Sutra, Makunda Mala and so forth, plus plenty of stotrams and there were bhajans ("happy-clappy songs").

...still here? Well done. Just reading that list doesn't of itself convey much - particularly to non-Indians. Think in terms of starting with the high school chemistry text, for example. Gradually working up to biochemistry and add in physics. Then astrophysics, quantum theory ... and keep on going. If we choose, we can read texts from these things - but how much would we truly understand? To the point that we can make connections and start to arrive at our own conclusions? For that, we require systematic study and the guidance of those who have already travelled that way.


14 comments:

  1. I like reading through, though so little remains these days of what I do read.

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  2. Having had to write for my living, since I retired I've found that reading the "tough stuff" Non fiction and or scholarly works terrifically well to pout me to sleep. I am hoping that I can start to read those things again, but right now I am floating along in a sea of action adventure, science fiction and ancient mythology. I like your last paragraph, gives me hope I may read deeply again.

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  3. to think out loud is a good way to learn and to reflect ... even when I do this at night when I can not sleep... it helps a lot...

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  4. I too love and worship Nandi. Reading in many ways is beneficial to us. it is true that reading things beyond our grip requires some guidance. Nice Yamini. Well-said.

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  5. Only a couple of the texts on the list are titles that I recognise, but the bookshelves certainly look daunting. The question that occurs to me about all the studying is how one makes best use of it. Or am I missing the point?
    Cheers, Gail.

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    1. ari OM
      Application is the wisdom part of knowledge. Therefore it is not just that one knows one's times-tables but can actually work out the value of something quickly and sensibly at the shops! The reason we learn anything is to improve ourselves or lift ourselves and - hopefully - others by applying our knowledge. With Advaita (or any philosophical understanding for that matter) the purpose is to as clearly and unemotionally as possible understand the world and who we are within it, to build a better relationship of one with the other and thus, become the very best that we can be. The latter is as variable as our application... And as hinted at within this post, the AVbloggy is a direct application for me as the practitioner/teacher that all this was training me for!

      Thanks for an excellent question - and perhaps a starting point for the next post... Yxx

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  6. Oh YAM-Aunty I applaud you on this journey and will be a big supporter. I agree with Barb non fiction usually does not hold my attention either
    Hugs cecilia

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  7. I did read this entire thing and maybe half of it I absolutely did not understand and I only read it because I like you and I wanted to see what you wrote. I am an Avid Reader but I have never read a book that was true I only read fiction I am an addict to fiction and stories and when I was in school and they put books in front of me that I had to read I did read them but I retained none of it. I was good at memorizing so I would memorize what I knew we would be tested on and then I would take the test and pass the test and then a week later I had no clue and if you ask me the same question and I am still that way and always have been. My brother is like you he has an entire library with a lot more books and what you showed here and they are all books like what you have here things that have meaning or direction or about the life of other people. He and I are total opposites

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    1. Hari OM
      That photo shows only the part of my library that contains all the texts mentioned plus a few more - it is about half of my existing library (which was much larger before leaving OZ - but I had to cut down transfer costs somehow!).

      The method of 'read, memorize, regurgitate, forget' is something that, it might be suspected, a great many students in the western schooling model carry through. Indeed, to a large extent, I did that too. Not due to lack of interest, but simply that the system didn't (doesn't) really allow for anything more than this. It is exactly what turns many pupils off the joy of learning. Where one is fortunate, as I was, to find teachers along the way who understood that teaching HOW to learn was as valuable as just memorizing can be the difference.

      You have such an interest and ability, for example, with handling computer stuff, that had you chosen to study this formally, you'd have been brilliant! It does come down to having the will and not just the need. Thanks for sticking with the post! YAM xx

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  8. My interest in reading this is to see how you progress and if I retain anything in the process it would be a bonus for me 🙂

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  9. What a collection of books you have! As I get older, I find myself interested in more non-fiction...mostly history and have enjoyed learning more about the American Revolution through reading. MY husband is grounded in science, math and technology. You'll find many, many, MANY related books on our "book wall"(our livi g room have a long wall full of bookcases).

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  10. Depth reading is not something I can do on a regular basis. Not that I was ever that good at studing in depth. I am what one might call a slacker. Yes, really. namaste, janice xx

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  11. Dear YAM-aunty, Thinking out loud - that ability to examine thoughts and feelings from some other perspective if they are given voice or linguistic form. It's interesting how you might find yourself choosing a different word or phrase to describe, re-ordering to change emphasis or create a heirarchy of values, when viewing (or reviewing) the subject as a listener or reader might percieve it from your telling. Is that perhaps what prayer also achieves? Maybe whispering to Nandi is a way of achieving the revelation of clarity for those not so inclined to talk out loud to themselves (as say F is)? Xxx Mr T

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    1. Hari OM
      My word, "Mr T" - that is an interesting and valuable thought! There may certainly be an element of that. If one is organising a prayer - which is basically a request of someone other - one will choose one's words quite carefully and also to attempt 'nutshelling' it. This enforces a sort of clarity in itself. There is an added element to prayer, however. That is the surrender to whatever comes - even if it is not what has been wished for. If one has the faith to make a prayer in the first place, one must also have the faith that what arrives in life is what is intended to be dealt with... and that one is trusted to be able to do so.

      Another aspect of prayer is unburdening. As you say, some are not so inclined to talk things out and may lack a trusty "BFF", so Nandi's ear (or the nearest tree trunk) can be a safe place to let it all out! Serving similar purpose to confession as provided in the Catholic church. There are deep social service points which come out of such... Yxx

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