Swayambhus and Self-made people!

Last week I was a mute witness to a gruesome murder. There was nothing I could do about it except to wring my hands helplessly and look heavenwards. Let me tell you what happened. I visited an old friend’s house just for a tête-à-tête with him. He had just got his son married and as I could not attend the wedding, my visit was also aimed at meeting the couple. This friend of mine and I share a passion for carnatic music and we have attended numerous concerts together. After exchanging the usual courtesies, we fell into a reverie about the good old days and the concerts that we attended together. It was then, I reminisced about a concert that we attended at Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai. It was some kind of a jugalbandhi between the immortal Maharajapuram Santhanam and the inimitable M.S.Viswanathan. The highlight of the divine evening was the song ‘Sambo Sivasambo Svayambho’ in Revathi written by Dayananda Saraswathi.

Suddenly our reverie was disturbed by my friend’s son announcing how well his young bride could sing that song. We clapped our hands and summoned her to render the song. She hesitated for a moment and without further ado attacked the song brutally. What followed was a merciless beating of the song beyond recognition and its total annihilation. What pained me most was the proud smile that everyone wore and the unkindest cut of all was the participation of my friend in the smiling match! I thought it was very slimy of my friend to curry his dil’s favour this way. He fell several notches down in my estimation and with a heavy heart I took leave of them.

But I am digressing. I came to talk to you about Svayambhu but the word took me to that song Sambo Sivasambho immortalized by Santhanam. I am sure that everyone in IL is familiar with the word Svayambhu. It refers to the self manifesting images of our deities. They are there everywhere from Rameswaram to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1lace>Nepal</st1lace></st1:country-region>. Such self manifesting images of deities draw devotees like magnet and the feeling of awe that we experience standing before them is beyond compare. If you had visited <st1lace><st1laceName>Swayumbunath</st1laceName> <st1laceType>Temple</st1laceType></st1lace> in <st1:country-region><st1lace>Nepal</st1lace></st1:country-region>, Kedarnath, Ganapathipule in <st1lace>Maharashtra</st1lace> and similar temples, you would know what I mean.

We have ‘swayambhus’ among us too. I mean the people who proclaim themselves as ‘self-made’. It has become customary to refer to all those rag to riches people as self-made. When people without a background hit the headlines, we call them self made. <st1lace><st1laceName>Random</st1laceName> <st1laceName>House</st1laceName> <st1laceType>College</st1laceType></st1lace> dictionary defines a self made person as someone ‘having succeeded in life unaided’. I think that this definition is quite inappropriate because such a person can never exist.

My wife was one of those who visited an orphanage yesterday to celebrate IL’s 3<SUP>rd</SUP> Anniversary. Ever since she returned from there, she has not stopped talking about a two day old child left by someone at the gate of the orphanage. Thanks to the excellent care and attention that the orphanage is showering on the child, he is doing fine. As he grows older, someone or other will take care of his progress through life and one day, he may make it to the very top. Can he call himself self made at that time? Is it being fair to all the people who contribute to his growth?

Let alone those unfortunate children left unattended at orphanages. Take our own cases for example. Right from the ten month gestation to the time when we are old enough to take care of ourselves, mother plays a very important role. The father supplements her role with material resources. We owe all our knowledge that gives us status and material comfort to all our devoted teachers. Somewhere in the world somebody or other toils hard to give us all the food that we eat and the comforts that we enjoy. There are countless unseen faces helping us on the way to where we want to reach and despite all this, it is sheer arrogance to call oneself a self-made person. Let us always remember the immortal verse of Saint Thyagaraja, 'Entharo mahanubhavulu anthiriki vandhanamu’ (To all the great people, I pay my obeisance)

 

Dear Vanaja
Digressing is an essential characteristic of rambling. When you are on the wrong side of sixties, it is very difficult to remain focussed! At 65, I find only my mind very agile and fast and the rest of my being is in a sublime repose. When I think of a subject, all the allied incidents create an arabesque in my mind. I find it very difficult not to share them with you.

You have made a very valid point about the human tendency to refer to only 'good' people coming up in life by their own efforts as 'self made'. Someone from a slum growing into an internationally feared goonda is never referred to as 'self made' Remember Nayagan and the final question his grandson asks him, "Are you a good man or bad man?" Reaching the top irrespective of the quality of the peak that is conquered will require the same grit and determination but still, the 'self made' tag is given only to the socially accepted persons.
Sri

 

Dear Chithra
You are right. Maharajapuram Santhanam was the uncrowned king of this particular song. It was such a tragedy that his life should end so abruptly in a car accident. His son Ramachandran who is ably filling up the void created by his father's death, was my colleague in SBI. It is so gratifying to see that he sings just like his father and one cant help marvelling at the links established by the genes!
I have visited the Pillayar Temple at Chembakkam in Vellore and felt overwhelmed by the sight of the 11 self manifested Pillayars. Some are fully developed and a few are just in the process of growing. It is a must see!
Thank you for your additional input on the so called self made people. I have always regarded it as the greatest of all myths! From the time the child is born, the mother attends to its every need without asking. She can interpret the crying of the child correctly as being hungry, suffering colic pain, needs cleaning, requires to be put to sleep etc and promptly runs to administer relief. If that child, when it grows up, claims to be self made, it is a great insult to that mother!
Sri

 

Dear Devika
There was one Indian Emperor who annihilated music and musicians like Hitler annihilating Jews. It was Aurang Zeb! It was indeed an irony that a son of one of the most romantic couples ever lived, Shahjehan and Mumtaz, should have hated the romance of music but then for such a materialistic person who could commit fratricide to come to power, music could hardly be inspiring!

I know many people who worshipped MS as a Divine Mother and that divinity in her was in no small measure due to the soulful music that God had blessed her with.It is such a fitting tribute to her that her larger than life statue has been installed by Tirupathi Devasthanam on the way to the Sacred Hill.

I have heard someone saying that the best way to put all the narcissts in their place is to banish all the mirrors in existence! I have seen people cursing the heavy pillars that bear the weight of the entire building complex for being a hindrance to the smooth parking of their cars! All pillars, I guess, stand as mute witness to the selfishness of man.
Sri

 

Dear AC
Thank you for your nice words.
I still hold on to the theory that no one can claim to be self-made. Maybe there are no visible contributors to the so called self-made people but indirectly they owe their progress to a lot of people. It is like a subterranean stream of water keeping the surface green. The stream is invisible but its presence can be felt only by the greenary on the surface.
I agree that beyond a point, it is one's own hard work and of course luck that play a major role in shaping a person's standing in life. Self made is a wrong coinage. They can at best be called self-motivated. I mention luck too because quite often we find very hard working guys getting superceded by a few who get a lucky break at the right moment.
Sri