(newspremi.com, Tuesday, 23 June 2020)
(Manas Ganika katha: Day 4, Ayodhya, 25 December 2018)
Pujya Morari Bapu’s ram katha begins everyday with Shanknaad (divine sound from a Conch shell), followed by Hanuman Chalisa. After this various mantras from Ved-Upanishads are chanted, making you feel like you are not in a modern tent but in a glorious ashram of a great sage of olden times. Then Bapu’s dedicated band of musicians and singers play Indian ragas, lifting the environment from tranquil to divine with the beautiful harmony of tabla, harmonium, shehnaai, benjo, manjira, etc. When they finish playing, a selection of chopaais from Ram Charit Manas is recited followed by Ram stuti. After the Ram Stuti, specially selected chopaais are sung that represent the central subject of the current katha. All this takes up roughly an hour’s time during which your mind gets totally detoxed— freed from the mundane influences of the past twenty hours or so. This ingenious method devised by Bapu is fantastic for auto correcting the wavering of our mind and stabilising it for sharp clear focus. During this hour an image of Hanuman rises in your consciousness and just like Hanumanji your mind calmly shifts its attention away from the outside world and fixes it onto lord Ram. Later in the katha you maybe giggling at a joke casually inserted at the right place, or singing along some relevant hindi film song or folk song, or musing at the beauty of words from a poetry, despite all this your inner consciousness doesn’t deter from Ram.
It’s the fourth day of ‘Manas: Ganika’. Today we decided to explore a new place for breakfast before going to the katha venue. On the famous Dev-Kali Road in Ayodhya are two nameless delis adjacent to each other, with no sign board of any kind. Freshly fried hot Jalebis are being dipped in sugar syrup. A big thal of Rabdi is gracing the counter, ready to serve. Samosas are being fried for the already waiting line of customers. We gorge on this spread plus Dahi-Kachodi and reach the katha mandap. The mood outside the mandap is busy and jolly like a funfair. People are gathered around countless small street vendors selling a myriad of interesting things. By nine a.m. we settle down in our seats. Katha will start sharp at ten and for the next four hours or so we will be immersed in it, drinking it like a sweet nectar, and in no need for anything else to eat or drink.
Bapu says, giving your money to the needy, and giving it with compassion, is the only way to convert simple wealth into real prosperity (Laxmi).
Yesterday evening my friends were getting a parcel of jalebis for me. The said parcel was left unguarded for just a few moments and within those seconds with one swift leap the packet reached my ancestor’s ancestors instead of me. Today morning a packet of papdi met with the same fate when a maverick monkey literally snatched it out of our hand. So here’s our plan: now that they already have papdi and jalebi, we’re going carry some fried green chillies with us tomorrow to complete the menu.
It’s Christmas today. The birth of shri Ram is an important event in katha. Today is the birthday of shri Jesus. After Bapu sits down on vyaspeeth I wait for the signal from Nareshbhai and Nileshbhai Vavadiya, the chiefs of ‘Sangeet Ni Duniya’ family. When they give me a go-ahead, I reach vayspeeth and bow to Bapu. I present him with the red Santa cap and ask for his permission to wear a similar cap during katha today. After he gives his blessings, our group removes more caps out of our bags and we wear them, checking and adjusting the white furry bobble on each other’s caps. A American lady from New York is sitting besides us and we give her a cap too. She speaks fluent Hindi with a heavy American accent, also sings along the chopaais in the same American accentuated Awadhi. One cap goes to Ramesh Sachdev from UK who donated rupees 1 crore (10,000,000) to the ganika welfare fund raising. All of us quickly wear the caps to celebrate the day.
After joining the vyaspeeth for an hour of meditational chantings you hear Bapu’s first words of the day: ‘baap!’
The funds for ganika welfare have crossed three and a quarter crores now in just 48 hours after the announcement. Bapu says, giving your money to the needy, and giving it with compassion, is the only way to convert simple wealth into real prosperity (Laxmi).
Bapu says: ‘everything is interconnected’.
It seems two points have been echoing in Bapu’s mind. One, Jesus Christ’s birthday, and two, the question asked by that boy yesterday: Bapu, why was I born in a brothel?
Bapu sings his favourite lines written by Anand Bakshi in his trademark bhajan like film song singing style: kuchh toh log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna (coincidentally, in an interview taken some years back, PM Modi has also quoted these same lines as his favourite hindi song lyrics). It is a perfect background score to express the two leading thoughts of today’s katha.
Bapu says: ‘Jesus—the man whose birthday is celebrated today by the world— is so pure, so innocent. His mother is even more innocent, sinless. Mother Mary. This Virgin Mary means what? Who? Jesus is this woman’s son. How you were born is not important, how you live is what matters.’
Let’s hold the thread of what Bapu is saying a little longer. Let’s try to understand it further. Mother Mary is also called Virgin Mary. But the meaning of the word virgin here is closer to ‘unmarried’ rather than physically virgin. This virgin Mary gives birth to Jesus, a child whose father’s name is unknown. Disapproving her actions, the society shunned even Virgin Mary. The english term for this kind of child is offensive but in urdu and hindi such a fatherless child is called lavaaris— not a legal heir or vaaris of any man. Jesus was such a child.
Bapu says: ‘everything is interconnected’. Bapu answers that distressed boy’s question with reference of Jesus Christ’s birthday: ‘Where you are born and how you will die is not in your hands. How we choose to live between these two points is in our control.’
Bapu is a minimalist in his use of words. His uses small sentences, pithy and brief, never verbose. I am on the exact opposite of this spectrum— fond of long rhetorics and prone to use flamboyant expressions, sometimes boastful even. I would joyously write a whole article for something that can also be said in a single sentence— often necessary for simplifying shlok-vaani (sentences that are beautifully rich in meaning but condensed to the point of being cryptic) into lok-vaani (easy to grasp for the layman). Life of Jesus begins in similar way as this collegian boy who met Bapu yesterday in the evening meeting between Bapu and more than two hundred ganikas. Bapu continues, ‘But in his short life (32 years only) Jesus made such a great difference to this world that today the whole world celebrates his birth,’ indirectly guiding the boy to not get disheartened by the single event of being born in a brothel and instead try to live such a worthwhile life that others will remember it for ages and celebrate the day you were born.
Bapu fondly remembers that today is also the birthday of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malaviya.
‘Because,’ Bapu notes, ‘who is totally sinless here?’ He quotes Surdas: mo sam kaun kutil, khal, kaami— no one is as devious, wicked and lustful as me. And another sixer (in gujarati) from Bapu : ‘tathakathit ketliye dharma dhajao ‘lehrati’ nathi hoti, ‘fafadti’ hoy chhe!’— Meaning many of the so-called religious ‘leaders’ are not leading the society at all, they are totally paranoid of anything new, too scared by even the smallest change!
Bapu says: just see the social equality practised by ganikas. They don’t look at a man’s status, caste, social standing, age, complexion— nothing. And we? In an unbiased comparison, you will end up feeling ashamed. Take ‘Manas: Ganika’ as an occasion for some self-analysis. Let this katha bring you closer to Ram, not kam (indulgences). Jesus lived a short life, but it was a great life. I feel all of us from the Sanatan Hindu way of life need not refrain from celebrating Christmas. I have even recited a full nine day Ramkatha at Jerusalem— the birth place of Jesus. So I say celebrate the birth of Jesus with joy and celebrate with double the joy on Ramnavami, Janmashtami, Mahashivratri, Navratri, Hanuanjayanti. They may not be as tolerant as us, but we should be magnanimous and join their celebrations of the birth of Jesus.
Bapu fondly remembers that today is also the birthday of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malaviya. He addresses the young boy and his family and says: today I’ve brought a reference from Valmiki Ramayan especially for you.
Bapu says: Every katha is like a new birth for you and me.
Bapu first quotes from Tulsi’s Ram Charit Manas to simplify the background of this sanskrit shloka from Valmiki Ramayan and make it more palatable for us. Bapu begins by asking us to remember: ‘what do the devtas do to plead paramatma to take Ram avatar? It was high time for Paramatma (supreme power) to take his avatar on this earth, but earth was crawling with so much corruption and irreverence, no one was ready to adhere to truth and ideals. In such circumstances all devtas gathered, with Brahma in the lead. What do they say to paramatma for decreasing the Asur (sinful, evil) forces and bringing the good forces on earth?’
Tulsi writes:
Jai Jai Surnayak Jan Sukhdayak Pranatpal Bhagwanta,
Oh! Swami of the devtas, giver of happiness to his devotees, and protector of the downtrodden.
Go Dwij Hitkari Jai Asurari Sindhusuta Priyakanta,
You are the benefactor of cows and of Brahmins. Oh slayer of demons, the beloved of the daughter of the ocean(Laxmi).
Paalan Surdharni Adhbhut Karni Maram Na Janahi Koyee,
One, who nurtures the earth and the devtas, your acts are very strange, no one even knows the reasoning for them.
Jo Sahaj Kripala Deendayala Karahoon Anugraha Soyee.
He, who by nature is so kind and generous, please, you help us!
Your acts are very strange, no one even knows the reasoning for them. Now Bapu begins explaining the shloka from Valmiki Ramayan. Before chanting the shloka in sanskrit and translating it for our understanding Bapu declares: this is a literal translation. It is not a cleverly twisted ‘my take’. This is from Valmiki Ramayan as it is. The first word of the shloka is apsara (great beauties). Bapu shares: this word apsara is used for women who are dev-ganika, women serving for the pleasure of devtas. According to one lore, the world around us was brought into existence by child borne by a dev-ganika.
‘Oh apsaras, when it is time for me to take avatar, I want you all to give birth to sons who are comparable to me (hari tulya) and can assist me in my work.’
This is the simple translation of the shloka from Valmiki Ramayan. It mentions many more creatures other than the aspara or dev-ganika, but the first among them is apsaras. Brahma advised all of them to use their knowledge and wisdom to create children worthy of god, who will help destroying the evil. Which means the soldiers in Ram’s war against evil were all their sons (Bapu gestures towards where ganikas are seated with one hand). So, my dear child (addressing the young boy) forget the painful stigma of where you were born, your true background is that you were the children comparable to lord Ram, you were the soldiers who fought evil forces alongside him and helped establish Ram-rajya in this world. These are the words of Adi-kavi Valmiki. Jesus is what? Mother Mary is what?
Bapu says: When the sinful bathe in Ganga, the holy river is not defiled even as the sinners are cleansed of their sins.
Bapu quotes Tulsi to convey how god feels towards us: ‘sab mama priya, sab mama upjaaye/ sab te adhik manuj mohe bhaye’. I am the creator of everything you see, all the things and all the creatures. They are all dear to me because they are my creations. (But) Among all of them humans are the most dear to me.
Perhaps in reference to the boy’s unknown father or maybe in reference to god, Bapu remembers this song from the film Abaroo (1968) sung by Mukesh:
jinhe hum bhoolna chahe
woh aksar yaad aate hain
bura ho iss mohhabat ka
woh kyon kar yaad aate hain..
‘Valmiki Ramayan gracefully acknowledges these behen-beti for giving birth to godlike children (hari-rupen putro). These very children fought evil forces and helped create Ram-rajya. I want to tell this young man again, remember you are someone’s creation, remember that there is a life to be lived between your birth and death. Indian philosophy teaches us to not judge a river by its root and a sadhu by his ancestry, but I want to extend it further to all of the people around us, don’t be judgemental of the root or ancestry anyone. Because even the most chaste can have a colourful past behind them and even the most sinful can have a bright new future ahead of them.’
Bapu says: Every katha is like a new birth for you and me. That is truly so. With every successive katha we witness something new in Bapu. When we understand it, accept it, make it a part of our life, something new is added in us as well. When a new truth enters, it fills up a space previously empty, and there is that much less of void within us. Maybe that’s what rebirth means.
Bapu illustrates that Vaishali, Ujjain and Agra were the three main centres for ganikas in ancient India, with the examples of the three famous nagar-vadhu (bride of the city): Amrapali of the republic of Vaishali, Vasantsena of Ujjain and Ramajanibai of Agra. He adds: ‘what is to be gained by refusing to see them as paramatma’s creations? (nothing, so accept it as such). There is no night that will not have a morning at the end. And it feels like the world is ready for sunrise now. In this world some people sell body, some sell feelings, some sell intellect— every one is selling something or the other to survive.’ Perhaps to avoid embarrassing anyone Bapu doesn’t mention that there are many who sell their integrity even and manage to get a small fortune in return.
Bapu says: When the sinful bathe in Ganga, the holy river is not defiled even as the sinners are cleansed of their sins.
At the end of the fourth day it feels like this katha is reaching amazing new heights as each day passes and by the ninth day it will stand taller than Kaliasa.
यह लेख हिन्दी में पढ़ने के लिये यहाँ मिलेगा
આ લેખ ગુજરાતીમાં વાંચવા અહીં ક્લિક કરો
