You are here: SriPedia - Oppiliappan - Archives - May 2003

Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00031 May 2003

 
May 2003 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]



Dear friends,

This piece is not on any great matter of 'siddhAntam' or
'sampradAyam'. It is a mini-travelogue. It is a rather personal
reflection, nothing more, nothing less.

*******************

A couple of weeks I was in Cairo, Egypt for a few days and seized the
opportunity to visit the Great Pyramids of Al-Giza and Saqqara. 

The monumental pyramids of the Giza are 3 in number. To this day they
rank as one of the world's greatest wonders whose glory and grandeur
remain unsurpassed by lesser monuments, past and present. The first
is the great pyramid of the pharoah king Khufu whom the ancient
Greeks called "Cheops". The second, and only slightly smaller one, is
a few kilometers away from the first and is the great pyramid of
Khufu's heir, the pharoah king, Khafre. And the third one too, not
far from the second, is known as the Pyramid of Menkaure, the son of
Khafre.

These great pyramids of Giza are only 3 amongst almost a 100 others
of lesser stature and fame known today to have survived 4000 and more
years of history. They stand now dotting the vast lands of Egypt,
from Aswan to Alexandria, through which the great River Nile flows.

The sight of the Giza pyramids is a sight for the gods, indeed! They
truly take one's breath away. The pyramid of Khufu is a massive
structure of 3.5 million blocks of ageless limestone. Each block
weighs an average of 2.5 tons although some weigh as much as 30 to 60
tons each! The pyramid rises majesticaly, an awesome monolith in the
desert, hovering straight above the bright, shimmering sands of the
barren pharoanic landscape -- 481 ft into the clear azure skies
(almost twice the height of the 'rajagOpuram' of our SriRangam
temple); and it stretches for 751 feet on each side covering a
massive area of 564,000 sq.ft (bigger than any 'prAkAra' I have seen
back home in India). It simply dwarfs and overwhelms everything in
its vicinity by sheer size and presence.... 

************************

For 4500 long years since the Giza was built, the pyramid of Khufu
has weathered everything that Time or History has thrown at it. It
has survived floods, earthquakes, violent sand-storms and plague. It
has stood witness to some of the greatest epochal events of the world
ever since the dawn of human history -- wars, invasions, upheavals
and vandals. It is said Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon have all in their
own times stood at its feet and marvelled at this ancient edifice.
Historians, travellers, archealogists, artists of every generation
have been captivated, even mesmerized, by the unfading magic of
Giza... It is an an old Arab saying: "The world fears Time; yet Time
fears the pyramids".

On a strangely quiet and dustless summer forenoon in May 2003,
beneath a cloudless sky with brilliant Egyptian sunshine raining down
the melancholy sand-dunes of a Giza skyline, I too, like some unknown
traveller of the past, stood silently watching the great Pyramid of
Khufu ... taking in its ageless mystique, ruminating its distant
legends and tales, feebly trying to unravel what has remained ever
un-raveled, trying to understand what has yet been barely understood
-- in other words, what to this day remains the inscrutable
immortality of the Giza. 

******* ********* ********

It is not only by its physical magnificence that Khufu's pyramid
deeply stirs one's soul. 

The pharoanic Egyptians deeply believed in an after-life awaiting the
human spirit. In this they were quite like all great religions of the
world that went before and after the Nile civilization. The Vedic
religion, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam -- all do postulate an
after-life. The after-life these faiths speak about is the after-life
of the soul ('atmA') alone. The body ('dEha-sarIra'), according to
these faiths, is abandoned by the soul ('atmA') before it embarks
upon the onward journey into the heavenly realms. The pharoanic faith
however differs from this view. The Egyptians believed death did not
necessarily render the body useless for the purposes of the soul.
They believed that in the journey of the after-life, no less than in
the soul's earthly sojourn, the spirit ('atmA') continues to employ
the body ('sarIra') as its vehicle. 

The unique phraonic practice of preserving the mortal remains of
their great kings was founded precisely on the above belief. When a
great king like Khufu or Djoser died their bodies were meticulously
embalmed and entombed according to ancient, esoteric rites of
mummification. (They even deified a god of mummification whom they
called 'Annabis'). These elaborate rites and processes took about 70
days. The corpse was then placed inside an ornate vault (like the
famous Tomb of Tutankhamen - 110 kgs of solid gold!). All the dead
king's personal effects too were buried alongside the sarcophagus
since it was believed that every item of daily use in this world
would be needed to continue serving the king in his journey across
the other-world. And thus it was that, in the tomb of Tutankhamen
when it came to be excavated centuries later, historians found all
manner of royal treasures inside the great pyramid --- regal
wardrobe, great thrones, chariots, palanquins, priceless jewels,
boats and oars, and even 365 little iconic replicas made of finest
alabaster, representing a king's personal courtiers, royal servants
and retinue who would render unto the king -- every single day of the
year! -- all manner of services befitting a king even in the
other-world! 

It was thus that everything that had been put inside the great Giza
4500 years ago -- the mummy, the sarcophagus, the tomb and all kinds
of royal paraphernalia -- everything was found intact in exactly the
same condition as perhaps it had been first placed! It became a
marvel and a wonder the world had never witnessed before! It was as
though through their great pyramids, the ancient Egyptians had
virtually bade Time and Eternity to stand frozen and still! The Giza
was not only an architectural marvel; more importantly, it was also a
bold statement of a metaphysical idea of towering proportions. What
idea? The idea that, after all, Time can be conquered by Man. It was
the seed of this idea, the human conception of the pyramid as it
first arose, germinated and then sprouted in the minds of the ancient
Egyptians, and which eventually inspired and gave birth to those
towering tombs we see today in Giza... it is the idea itself that is
indeed far more arresting and overpowering than the monument's
physical presence. 

Khufu's pyramid truly leaves us wondering again and again... and yet
again: "What and why and whither did the Egyptian pharoah conceive
the pyramid? What motivation, what soul-force was it that made whole
generations of common Egytian quarry-workers, artisans and sculptors
toil away a large part of their individual lives helping to erect
these massive temples for their dead kings? What larger and innermost
aspiration of the human soul is it of which these pyramids are but
outward expressions? Were these great tombs of the Pharoah kings
built only to symbolize Man's defiance in the face of Death? Or were
they meant to be Man's humble acknowledgement of the immemoriality of
Time eternal?" 

****************************

For a casual visitor like me who came from an altogether different
part of the world, and from a distinctly distant cultural i.e. Vedic
background, feelings towards the great Pyramids of Giza can be quite
unexpectedly mixed. 

Though marvel and reverence did predominate my feelings, I could not
however suppress a vague sense of distaste arising in me as I stood
witnessing the spectacle of Giza. Grand and glorious as the pyramid
truly was, I could not help thinking, the prime purpose to which it
had been put to use by the ancient Egyptians, was "prEta-samskAra" --
i.e. the pyramid essentially represented a funereal institution. And
to my Vedic sensitivity Giza really belonged in the "smushAna-bhUmi" 
-- a graveyard or a crematorium where the last remains of
"deha-sarIra" are confined and a wholly unfit and inauspicious
("asoucham") place for any human purpose from every Vedic
viewpoint... 

The true Vedic adherent has indeed no use or regard at all for the
Body after the Soul has left it. It is the 'atmA', not the 'dEha',
which is eternal and timeless. Yet, the hallowed quality of
timeless-ness, (the quality of "anantham" as it is known in Vedantic
parlance), that quality of eternity which the majestic pyramids seek
to symbolize... it is, after all, associated with the Body of an
ancient pharoah king... isn't it? And hence how could I, a Vedic
follower, stand here atop the dry and barren desert of the
Giza-plateau and gaze with awe and wonder at the tomb of Khufu....?

Back in my hotel room that evening, I could not resist the urge to
quickly get into a cold-shower and rub myself down thoroughly in a
bath. Deep down in my heart I felt pulled by some strong, nagging and
atavistic Vedic sentiment to go and get myself an ablution... and
quickly perform a few score spirit-cleansing "sandhyA-gayatri-japa".
Or else, I feared, the defilement of the graveyard --- in other
words, the "asowcham" of the "smushAnam" I had somehow, either
rightly or wrongly, begun to associate with the Great Pyramid of Giza
--- that particularly magnificent defilement (or "theetu") would
never rub off me!

******************************

Every evening at the site of the Giza Pyramids they hold what has now
become a world-renowned "Sound-and-Light show". This show has now
become a fabulous tourist attraction -- an "absolute must" -- for
anybody visiting Egypt. Under the open twilight sky and amidst the
ancient monuments, this show employs modern technology ---
laser-lights, holograms, pychedelic ray-beams and stereophonic
sound-bites --- to present the magnificent pyramids, the Sphinx and
the pharoanic Valley Temple at Giza under splendorous arc-lights,
sound and colour.

In spite of the previous day's Vedic misgivings about visiting a
"smushAna-bhUmi", I found myself once again attracted by the magnetic
pull the sight of the great Giza exerts on anyone's mind. And before
I could say "dEha-sarira" (or "prEta-samskAra"!), I found myself once
again seated at the foot of the Khufu pyramid, enveloped by a silent,
gathering twilight. I gazed long again at the looming hulk of the
ancient relic. I sat utterly transfixed, humbled in way I could
scarcely explain to myself, enchanted by its ghostly shadows... I
became captive once again of the Giza's matchless mastery, its
haunting, enduring mystery... 

"Ah! How wonderful it would be", I said to myself wistfully, "how
wonderful it would be to stand like this day-after-day and keep
beholding Time itself frozen, as it were, in a a moment and in a form
as grand as this pyramid! How wonderful indeed it would be, as the
poet William Blake once said, to "hold Eternity in the palm of my
hand"...

"To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour." (William Blake)

********************************

It was then that a strange, final thought flashed across my mind like
a streak of passing revelation...

** The purpose of the ancient pyramid of the pharaonic age and that
of the timeless "mantra" of the Vedic faith -- like the
"gAyatri-mantra" for instance -- are, after all, one and the same,
aren't they? 

** Both enable us, do they not, to witness and experience the
essential timelessness residing within each of us? 

** Both in their own separate ways do tell us, don't they, of our
kinship with things far beyond this world, with things far greater
and subtler than 'dEha'? 

** The Giza is only 4500 years old. The "gayatri" is dateless. When
we look at the Giza we feel a profound sense of timelessness. How
much more intense, indeed -- we should pause to think -- how much
more reverence should that sense of "anantham" really become whenever
we utter the "gAyatri-mantra" which is a thousand times more
'timeless' than the Giza? 

** The sheer size of Giza of the ancient pharaohs inspires reverence
in us. How much more reverence then should the "vEda-giri" -- that
towering body of "mantra-shabdha" handed down to us by our ancient
'rshi-s' of India -- how much more reverence, indeed, should that
Vedic tower, a thousand times taller than any pyramid, inspire in our
hearts?

** To witness the Giza in all its majesty and splendour, one needs to
travel far to the valley of the River Nile and wait for the twilight
hour before one can cup the eternal moment in the palm of one's hand.
To visit the 'gAyatri' I need merely to await the hour of the
'sandhyA', cup a mere drop of water in my palms, utter the 'mantra',
delve silently into my mind and drift gently into the arms of
Eternity....

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
http://calendar.yahoo.com



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list