Manas Ganika-Day 5: Everyone must seek happiness from their Karma: Morari Bapu

By
Saurabh Shah
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(newspremi.com, Wednesday, 24 June 2020)

(Manas Ganika katha: Day 5, Ayodhya, 26 December 2018)

Weather is so cold today in Ayodhya. When we leave in the morning to reach katha mandap our breaths are condensing in white clouds of ‘smoke’ like we are on some hill station where the far away hill tops have ice caps on them. This biting chill gets transformed into a pleasant cool once we get inside the katha mandap and it all but disappears by the warmth of Pujya Bapu’s words when he begins katha.

People have come to this katha from every corner of India. We met a 19 year old teenager from Punjab who took a ten day leave from his newly joined job for attending katha. His 25 year old friend is accompanying him. Another gentleman Vinodkumar and his wife have come all the way from Kathmandu. We have come from Mumbai and thousands of Ram bhakts have arrived from Gujarat and rest of the country to Bapu’s katha. The local citizens of Ayodhya are even more excited to participate. They are eagerly joining in huge numbers and are happy to help the outsiders on the smallest indication. From roadside hawkers selling a variety of goods to shopkeepers, from hotel owners and street food vendors to rikshaw drivers— every one has Jai Siya Ram on their lips. They are not trying to take advantage of the rush and over charge for their services. When you offer to pay a little extra they are politely refusing even. At a famous lunch home Kanak Bhavan Bhojanalaya, freshly cooked hot fulka rotis with pure desi cow ghee liberally spread over rotis are lovingly served one after another, along with two delicious vegetables, dal, rice, etc. The waiters are almost forcing you to overeat and when you finally finish your meal they tell you ‘you didn’t eating anything!’. At the time of payment you are pleasantly surprised to see that this unlimited meal is charged at just Rupees sixty. Quite contrary to the false propaganda that food is becoming unaffordable in India. This is what you would happily pay for a single papad in a Mumbai restaurant, and a plain roasted one, fried papad will be ninety and masala papad will be around a hundred and twenty-five. Just yesterday one young lad delivered a heavy carton of water bottles to our room on the first floor, when I took out a twenty rupee note to tip him, he said: ‘your friends already gave me tip at the shop downstairs when they sent me with the box.’ Who will say something like this? I insisted him to take the money from me as well. He deserved even more I feel. I don’t understand those of us who won’t stop bickering about how we Indians are lacking in honesty. Chances are that they are the ones lacking it. They should just keep their mouths shut and try to introspect. Why attempt to accuse others and malign your fellow Indians?

Indians are honest, compassionate and mighty generous as well. Following the first donation of eleven lacs (1.1 million) by Bapu himself in the ganika welfare fund, everyone has poured in money. Today before the beginning of katha, we are informed that in three days the amount has grown to more than four crore thirty-eight lacs (43,800,000). Over and above a general donation box for the people present in katha, today they announce bank accounts numbers and other available avenues of donations for the tv viewers of katha from all over India who wish to transfer donations along with local bank accounts for those viewing in foreign countries.

A ganika knows your class as a human being, the amount of humanity in you, by how you behave towards her.

Bapu has started a huge initiative for the social wellbeing of a sect which has been  categorically and conveniently ignored by the society uptill now. Everyone here is also admiring that Asia’s oldest daily ‘Mumbai Samachar’ has joined hands for this movement.

Bapu starts katha by saying that among other dictionary meanings one meaning of the word ganika is derived from the word gananaa (measure). A ganika knows your class as a human being, the amount of humanity in you, by how you behave towards her. 

Bapu continues with some historical data: King of Vijaynagar in south India, Samrat Dharma Dev, had married a ganika. Meaning a ganika was given the status of a king’s wife by him. Ganikas were teaching music and etiquettes to his sons and daughters. Ganikas in Vijaynagar dynasty were groomed to become so knowledgable and intelligent that they could point out and correct any mistake in the interpretation of shashtras in the king’s court. Vijaynagar dynasty even had specially designated localities- ganika nagar- meaning that ganikas were given dignified places to stay, acknowledging the constructive role they played in the society. There were roads and alleys specially made for their passage and only the affluent class was allowed to share those roads. Bapu says: even the vedas have mentioned ganikas.

“lies need protection, whereas truth imparts protection”

There is an ancient lore, Bapu continues: One day a young boy comes to an ashram of a rishi with the request to study under him. Rishi inquires about the boy’s gotra (lineage). Boy says he doesn’t know. Rishi tells him to go back home and come with the information. The boy goes home and asks his mother what is his gotra. His mother replies: even I don’t know your lineage because I have served several affluent men. I cannot say for sure which among those gentlemen could be your father. Upon returning to ashram the boy informs rishi of his mother’s answer. The rishi is very impressed with the point blank truthfulness of this woman. He asks the kid for his mother’s name and the boy replies: Jabal. Rishi tells the boy that from today onwards your gotra will be known by your mother’s name. The boy was Satyakam. Who later became well known as Satyakam Jabal.

Bapu emphasises the importance of speaking the truth with this story. He says: lies need protection, whereas truth imparts protection. You’ll need to constantly protect your lies- with this false logic or that alibi, or support it with even more lies, or find the weak link of your story and repair it before others find out etc etc… When we lie, the burden of protecting it is on us. But when we speak truth, truth is in the role of the protector and it protects us.

Bapu reads a question from a young man: Bapu, you showed us the importance given to ganika in Valmiki Ramayan, but does Tulsi Ramayan say anything on ganika’s contribution in the society? He replies: Why would it not? It does in many places, just read it, immerse yourself in Manas and you’ll find your answer. During Ram’s rajyabhishek in Uttar kand Goswamiji writes: 

nabh dundubhi bajahi vipul gandharva kinnar gavahi/ nachahi apachhara vrind paramanand sur muni pavahi.

The skies are reverberating with the thunderous sounds of several dundubhi drums being played. Kinnars are singing and dev-ganikas are dancing. Two groups are taking pleasure of viewing this dance. One is the sur samaj, the gentry. And another is the muni samaj, the learned. He writes they are not just happy they are in paramanand, ecstacy. We have classifeid happiness in three levels— anand (happiness), paramanand (ecstacy) and brahmanand (enlightenment). One more term can be added in this, Bapu says it’s his personal view, we should add one more word this list— karmanand. The joy of engaging in your karma, the joy of being who you are. You should seek happiness from your Karma. A writer should find joy from his writing, a poet from creating poetry, a singer from singing. Karma should be a synonym of happiness for every human being, because we are nothing without our karma, we can’t exist without karma, every single second of our existence is for our karma, this is an eternal truth iterated by Krishna himself in Bhagvad Gita. A farmer should be happy to farm, women who are home makers should attain happiness from cooking food, if they cook at all, in this fast food age— if one cooks at all!

“Bapu, you didn’t mind visiting their area (Kamathipura), then why didn’t you arrange the ganika katha over there itself?”

Karmanand. Manas is full of revolutionary thoughts. Bapu says, ‘I should gain happiness from my karma of reciting katha. What Tulsi calls swantah sukhay, for my own joy. The source of real happiness is within you. If a person is not happy being who he/she is then their mind gets disturbed easily. For example if eating sweets brings me happiness then the lack of sweets will be disturbing. If we rely on pleasure from the various things existing outside of us then our joy will be fragile. When those things will not be available, joy will not be available. This is how the state of constant happiness gets threatened. Goswamiji says only the happiness that emerges from within can remain undisturbed by outside forces. He writes: nij sukh binu man hoi ki theera/ paras ki hoi bihin sameera. What a scientific approach to look at how the mind works. He says air (space) is needed to touch anything, similarly the joy of being is (the invisible medium) needed to gain a stable mind. The word anand (pleasure) is typically used to indicate material pleasures and not sukh (happiness). Here we are using anand and sukh as the same. Tulsi’s swantah sukhay is karmanand.’ 

Bapu reads out a list of synonyms for the word ganika noted by Bharat muni, the creator of Natyashatra. (Natyashastra is an ancient Indian encyclopaedia on the performing arts written in Sanskrit.) Bapu says every Indian religious texts including Baudh and Jain text has graciously acknowledged the role of ganika in a society. Christianity too is no exception to this. Bapu moves on to read a beautiful poem by Sairam Dave at this point:

kisi ne meri ruh ke chhale nahi dekhe

mein woh kamra hoon jisne ujale nahi dekhe

bade bade naam hai, ohade hai jinke sheher main

mere kamre ne toh izzat wale nahi dekhe

apni apni pyaas le ke roz aate log

kisi ke haathon mein nivaale nahi dekhe

qaid hoon mein zarurat-e-jism ki aandhi main

pujaari dekhe hain, shivaalay nahi dekhe

haath mera thaam kar kamare se nikaale

meine aise dilwale nahi dekhe

sharaab kam padi toh mujhe pi gaye the log

yahan kabhi kisi ne khaali pyaale nahi dekhe

“Bapu, suppose if you were elected in Lok Sabha where will you choose to sit, with opposition or government?”

Bapu says, hot debates are going on outside Ayodhya (on the holy town of Ayodhya as the venue for ‘Manas: Ganika’). But here in Ayodhya everyone is cool with it! Sadhu-Sants are here with their blessings, these behen-beti are here. Some people taunted me: Bapu, you didn’t mind visiting their area (Kamathipura), then why didn’t you arrange the ganika katha over there itself? I tell them: there is no open space left there, you people have seen to it!

The so-called concerned people of our society deserve this tight smack from Bapu.

Bapu continues, someone else asked me: Bapu, suppose if you were elected in Lok Sabha where will you choose to sit, with opposition or government? Bapu answers in a firm loud voice: neither of the two, instead I would put up my vyaaspeeth in front of them and sing Ramkatha. But how can I sit there with those who are wary of even the mention of Ram. When someone asked the singing legend Lata Mangeshkar why she did not attend Rajya Sabha after she was nominated as a member of the House she said: how can I fit in where people are so out of tune with one another? Bapu says we may or may not agree whether the time of Ram Rajya has begun in our country, but there is no doubt that Ramkatha Rajya is very much here. And especially here in Avadh, there is one Ramkatha being sung in almost every alley. (Bapu is right about that.  Last night, there was a continuous patth of Ram Charit Manas being sung somewhere close to our place of stay. It went on from yesterday evening till the wee hours of today morning, making us the lucky ones to be listening to chopaais sung with tabla and harmonium throughout the night, like we were in katha mandap even in our sleep).

“Bapu says: I have no personal friends in my life”

Bapu is in mood for light pleasantries. Everyone happily catches the same cheerful vibe as he goes on. Bapu quips: someone has asked me, Bapu have you ever made tea for yourself? Bapu answers him on air: indeed I have, many a times. I made tea during the Kailas Mansarovar katha too. After all, we all know there’s no limit to where a man can reach if he knows how to make tea!

Bapu says he was requested to write an essay on ‘My Enemies’ for a book with the same title. He says: I have no personal friends in my life. The upside of that is that I have no enemies either! Bhagvad Gita says, you are your only friend and you are your only enemy.

Today is Ram Janma celebration day in the katha. It is a sheer privilege to witness the devotion with which Bapu is singing the chopaais and dohas of Ram Janma here in Ayodhya. Katha continues till two in the afternoon today. The extra time felt like an added bonus. We are always astounded by this: how can Bapu conduct katha so effortlessly in his clear loud voice for four to five hours straight without having even a sip of water. How does he manage to sit cross legged for all this time without moving his legs even a bit. We are just sitting there listening and yet we need to keep changing our position every hour-half hour, keeping the legs crossed for some time then straight and then crossed again. Drink some water in between. This is one more thing worth learning from Bapu among many many other things.

यह लेख हिन्दी में पढ़ने के लिये यहाँ मिलेगा

આ લેખ ગુજરાતીમાં વાંચવા અહીં ક્લિક કરો

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