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Dear friends,

In a few days now the joyous festival of Deepavali
will descend upon us (Oct 25, '03). The Light of
Auspiciousness will spread through our homes, families
and hearts! Let me wish you all members and your
families a very Happy Deepavali! May the Almighty who
resides on the Hill of Venkatam protect us always!

**********

Deepavali is the time for new clothes and new goods!
It is an occasion that long tradition has turned into
custom for our families to go on a merry, unrestrained
shopping spree. In India especially, Deepavali is 
when a whole nation goes to market on a buying binge!
Building up slowly throughout the year like a
gathering storm, the pent-up desires of people -- for
cars, silks, jewellery, home-appliances, real-estate
or whatever -- their desire for all these new things
or what is called "goodies" of the world finally boils
over in a virtual riot of shopping during the weeks
leading to and following Deepavali! 

Once the shops announce their 'Sale', 'Festival offer'
and 'Festival bonanzas', the cash-registers begin
whirring overtime and business swings into overgear!
Jostling crowds of womenfolk go hither and thither,
from shop to shop, from bargain to bargain, clamouring
for this thing and that, flashing their dazzling
credit-cards and wallets as if there were no tomorrow!


Come hell or high tide, whatever be the cost, and no
matter how many shops they must climb up or down, the
ladyfolk will go to the very ends of downtown Madras,
Dubai or LA if that's where on earth they can buy that
new piece of jewellery just out in the market this
season! Before the 'mAmi' next-door beats them to it,
they must somehow buy that ravishing new brand of
'churidar' just out in the market...

And while the wives busy themselves in the souk, all
that the poor, harried husbands can do meanwhile
(after having been comprehensively relieved off their
salary and Deepavali bonuses) is lag behind in the
mall's parking-lots, driving round and round in
endless circles, looking for a slot in a roiling sea
of honking vehicles, billowing exhaust and angry,
policemen blowing their whistles to shoo them all
away... 

For most of us, be it in India or abroad, this is what
'Happy Deepavali' has become: an annual orgy of
frenzied consumerism. The 'Festival of Light' is half
observed at home these days; the other half, the more
important half of Deepavali, is celebrated over the
'bargain-sale' counters of Spencer Plaza at Chennai,
the City-Centre in Dubai or at WalMart in LA
perhaps... 

*********

A new personal wardrobe, however, ought never to be
the only reason for celebrating Deepavali or the sole
highlight of the festival. 

Deepavali is actually nothing if not a festival of
annual renewal... renewal both without and within.
There is an urge within each one of us that we can all
easily recognize -- it is the urge for a periodic
renewal of inner spirit. It is a far more powerful
urge than the need for mere new apparel. The annual
change-out of garments during Deepavali is only an
outward expression of such deeper inner need. It would
be a big mistake on our part to think that
life-renewal is easily attained by a mere change of
clothes or designer-jewellery.

In Tamil there is an old proverb:

"aaL pAdhi aadai paadhi"

If clothes maketh half the man, the qualities he
possesses maketh the rest of him. The test of good
taste in a man lies not only in how smartly he is
turned out but also in his manners and the personal
qualities he carries within him. Both sartorial
elegance and sterling character must combine in equal
measure to make anyone into a man of substance. 

So if Deepavali is occasion to add to a man's
wardrobe, it is equally good occasion to expand the
wardrobe of one's inner being too. One therefore needs
to renew the apparel of the soul too by clothing it
with at least one brand-new quality every year.
Patience, for instance, could be the quality to wear
one year. Courage, next, could be the garment to
acquire the following Deepavali. Kindness or
Courteousness could be next... and so on and so
forth... 

When our soul too gets thus annually renewed, with one
new quality being added each year as new clothes for
it ("aaL pAdhi aadai paadhi"), the festival of
Deepavali then becomes not only joyous but also truly
meaningful.

*********

This Deepavali (2003) I feel I would really love to
acquire, if at all I could by any means, a brand new
human quality for myself. It is the quality called
'Detachment'. 

Detachment is a very rare quality and a very difficult
one to attain for the noblest of men in this world. If
Detachment were to be an automobile it would surely
rank as, say, a 'Rolls Royce 2004-Limited Edition'; if
it were diamond jewellery it would surely be a DeBeers
piece; and if it were richest woven silk, it would
surely be the finest variety ever to come out of the
looms of Kancheepuram. Of all the human qualities
known to man, Detachment, without doubt, is the most
outstanding and the most priceless one... Oh, how I
would love to buy this quality! 

I am not ashamed to say that I now covet Detachment as
greedily I as I know (in my college days many years
ago) I once used to yearn for a new pair of
Levi-Strauss jeans on Deepavali day. My desire for
Detachment, I find, is becoming more and more intense
as the years go by, and more so especially after I
found it being hailed in the 'Bhagavath-gita' where
Lord Krishna Himself endorses it as:

yadrucchha lAbha santushtO
dvandhAtheethO vimatsarah I
samah-siddhAvasiddhow cha
krutvApi na nibhadhyatE II (IV.22)

Nothing in the world perturbs the man 
Who remains content with whatever comes his way;
Envy, success, failure, strife --
Nothing moves or unmoves the Man of Detachment.

Whenever I read this verse of the Gita I cannot help
thinking, "How wonderful, O how wonderful it would be,
indeed, if only I could go to a clothes-store and
purchase Detachment off the shelf as easily as I might
pick up a beautiful Lacoste T-shirt at Debenhams on a
Deepavali day."

**********

Detachment is a god-like quality. Indeed, it is an
adornment for God Almighty and is even one of the
several attributes of excellence and auspiciousness
("kalyANa-gUNa") said to define Him.

In the 'Vishnu Sahasranamam' there is a beautiful
stanza describing the Almighty Vishnu as the very
embodiment of that rare quality of Detachment. It
reads as follows:

rAmah viramah viratah: mArgO nEyO nayOnayah
veera shaktimatAm srEshtO dharmO-dharma-viduttamah
(Stanza 43)

The 398th 'nAma' of the Sahasranamam is "viratah:"
--meaning, "the One who is ever Un-attached or
Detached". 

Explaining this quality of Detachment as it is to be
found in God Himself, Sri Parashara Bhattar, in the
magnificent commentary he wrote on the
'Vishnu-Sahasranamam', draws our attention to a
poignant incident from the "sundara-kAndam" (the 4th
of the seven 'kAndA-s' or Parts of the 'Valmiki
Ramayana'):

When Hanuman met Sita in the Ashokavana, the
prison-grove in which Ravana incarcerated her in
Lanka, she was briefed of Rama's whereabouts and
condition. Sita listened to Hanuman's briefing with
joy tinged with pain. She could not suppress a wave of
memory that suddenly swept her mind. With hot tears
filling her eyes and emotion choking her heart she
recollected to Hanuman in meltingly beautiful words
her memories of the early days she'd spent as the
young bride of Rama.

While speaking in that nostalgic vein, Sita began to
extol the lofty and noble character of Rama. She spoke
of the many good qualites Rama possessed, of both the
the heart and head, but she paused to make special
mention to Hanuman of one particular quality her
husband had that was unparalleled by anyone in the
world in her own estimate:

"dharmApadE satyajatascha rAjyam
mAmchapyaranyam nayatah padAtim ..."

(V.36-29 Va.Ram)

"He gave up a throne and a vast kingdom
And walked away into the wilderness with me
Solely on a matter of dhArmic principle!"

After many months of painful separation from her
husband Rama -- a period during which she often
wondered whether she would ever remain alive to see
him again -- when the moment arrived when Sita was to
recollect her Lord, there was only towering quality of
his by which she could instantly recall him --- it was
Rama's great quality of Detachment -- "viratah"! It
was the quality of supreme and serene Detachment with
which Rama had accepted the fact, at the very last
moment, that he was not going to be coronated King of
Ayodhya, that he must make way for his brother
Bharatha instead, and furthemore, he must leave the
kingdom for 14 long years of exile in the wilderness
of the forests...

Who else, Sita herself marvelled to Hanuman, who else
but a man of such supreme "viratah" her beloved Rama
possessed, could ever pass up a throne, a kingdom,
wealth, pomp and all as nothing but mere trifle ...and
walk away just like that! 

*********

Now, we may ask, what exactly is the nature of this
rare and wonderful quality, Detachment?

One of my favourite religious authors, Sri Eknath
Eswaran, in his book "Thousand Names of Vishnu", has a
splendid explanation. I reproduce it below:

"Epictetus has an excellent metaphor for teaching
detachment, perhaps the most important skill to
acquire for living in a world of change. "Remember,"
he says,

To behave in life as you would make sure to behave
at a banquet. When something is being passed around,
as it comes to you, stretch out your hand and take a
portion of it gently. When it passes on, do not try to
hold on to it; wen it has not yet come to you, do not
reach out for it with your desire but wait until it
presents itself. So act toward children, toward
spouse, toward office, toward wealth.

Epictectus would have been at home at a Hindu 
banquet, for we have three unwritten rules (of
detachment):

One is that there is a regular apportionment of space
on the piece of banana leaf that serves as a plate.
You don't pile things on top of each other. Each
delicacy is served in a particular order in its
appropriate place.

Second, when something delicious is put in front of
you, you don't start in gobbling immediately; you wait
until everybody has been served. Children get so
impatient that a mother sometimes has to train her
little one by slapping his wrist gently; but by the
age of five or so all are able to sit patiently
waiting for until the serving is done and everyone
observes a few moments' repetition of the 'mantram'
('parisheshana mantram'). After that, as Sri
Ramakrishna says, conversation stops; the only sounds
you hear are of eating and drinking.

The third rule is that when you are done, you have to
wait until the last person has finished the last bite
before you get up. This unwritten code of banana-plate
manners makes even the largest family feast go
smoothly.

In personal relationships, Epictetus suggests, we
should observe the same kind of restraint. Don't try
to cling to people, to hold people to you; everything
changes and if you try to arrest relationships and
hold on to others (or to things), making them conform
to your own needs, you will lose all the magic of
life. William Blake says it beautifully:

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise. 

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

How right is Eknath Eswaran indeed! And how admirably
he says it!

Many people think that Detachment means withdrawal
from the world! This is utter rubbish. The Man of
Detachment is not some world-weary soul who rejects
everything around him. Nor is he some severe ascetic
who shuts everything and everyout of his life.
Detachment from the world does not mean derailment
from it.

Detachment means exactly what Krishna explains it as
in the 'Gita' verse we saw above -- "yadrucchha lAbha
santushtO..." i.e. Detachment means never yearning for
the unwanted, unnecessary things of the world.
Detachment means knowing exactly what is really
essential for one in this life and world and being
perfectly content with it ..."santushti". It means
cheerfully accepting whatever comes one's way in the
natural course of things and events. Detachment means
never scrambling after or grasping desperately at all
the petty things of this world we see around us -- the
things by which we really shall gain nothing except
perhaps whet some whim or vanity of ours....

True Detachment lies in the ability to let go of
things and people... willingly, gracefully, without a
tinge of regret and self-pity in us.

**********

In the midst of all the frantic shopping now going on
around me on the eve of Deepavali this week ... I find
me saying this to myself deep within my heart:

"Detachment is what I want. It is one of the best
gifts I know I could ever give myself! Can somebody
please tell me if there is a store somewhere in the
world where I could go and purchase some Detachment 
in a bargain-sale?"

*********

HAPPY DEEPAVALI, ONCE AGAIN, ALL OF YOU!!! 

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan 


























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