Book conversations: Between the Serpent and the Rope

For those of us who are spiritual aspirants, it is common practice to familiarize ourselves with the various spiritual folds and tenets, especially in the early exploratory phase.  

This, in essence, is the subject matter of this book.  Mukunda Rao records his own experiences from his peregrinations of famous spiritually important places of South India.  

Rao moves from Kalady (birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya), to Arunachalam (Ramana Maharshi's place), to Auroville in Pondicherry (home of the Aurobindo movement), to Puttaparthi (the Satya Sai Baba stronghold), to Mata Amritanandamayi's ashram, to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living campus, to Adyar (Jiddu Krishnumurti's main place of work in India), to finally finish with U G Krishnamurti's timeless, dogma-less, disciple-less and ashram-less concept of spirituality.

In so doing, Rao combines the details of his stay at and encounter with the people of these places, the rise and fall of the prominent religious/spiritual figureheads of some of these places, and his own take on the philosophies expounded by each of these gurus.  The result is a book that is at once a travelogue, a series of biographies, and an elucidation of the different spiritual theories of South India. 

Intriguingly, Rao comments on the failure/modification/misinterpretation/inadequacy of some of these philosophies, and the blind hero-worship that persists even after the founder-philosopher is no more.  Thus the idea behind the movement assumes gigantic proportions, and subsumes and supersedes even the founder-philosopher (for example - and this is my own take - the two Abrahamic religions; Christianity and Islam). 

In many ways, the preceding chapters are a build up to U G Krishnamurti's simple yet radical and difficult-to-grasp take on enlightenment; or Natural State, as he called it.  The added advantage Rao has is that he has met and interacted with the great man himself.

For the sake of completion, Rao (though I understand that he did not visit these places) could have included the accounts of Swami Nityananda's palaver and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's simple yet profound spiritual messages.  

To me, this work also goes to show the richness and variety of spiritual thoughts and practices that exist in this great land of ours for a spiritual aspirant explore and select from - and we are only talking South India here.

Eminently readable!

Also read my review of Rao's other book on Akka Mahadevi, along with my interview of the author.




Image source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uixCEmUsL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Article on nepotism in Bollywood

Following the untimely death of Sushant Singh Rajput, the focus is once again on nepotism in Bollywood (2020).  

I have raised this issue many a time, with the following being an early example, published in the then IndiaFM.com (2006):

https://www.filmibeat.com/bollywood/features/2006/dynasty-menace-star-040906.html

Nepolitics and nepollywood

Nepotism: The practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.

This is how the Oxford Dictionary defines the term that has been in the news lately.  I have already raised this prickly issue in Angst.

In Hindi we have a more colourful description of the term: Allah meherban to gadha pehelwan!

Politics and Bollywood (I prefer Hindi Film Industry, but this term fits in here) abound in instances of shameless use of power and influence in getting one's own kith and kin plum posts/roles.

There are countless examples.

Very recently, before they were ousted, two sons of a 'foddersome' politician had occupied prominent posts in a northeastern state.  One of them, if news reports are to be believed, was the health minister even though he had flunked his school exams.  His elder brother had tried his hand at cricket, found it too much hard work, and went... 'hey, never mind! there is always politics..!'

The grand-old-but-irrelevant-in-the-present-context party continues to hold on to the family that has usurped the Mahatma's surname.  That the 'young scion' is not only young anymore, but is also completely unfit to remain in public life, leave alone lead a party, doesn't seem to matter.

No prizes for guessing who I am referring to.

Cut to the land of dreams and glamour: Bollywood, or any of the umpteen 'woods' that have sprung up across the country.  The story is the same in each of these regional editions.

I need not go into the details since I have already written about this long ago.

Recently, a star-kid - a failed actor - had written that she barely survived Bollywood and the bad things it did to her.  Sorry, what?  Who asked her to be a part of it?  Is Bollywood some kind of family jagir that needs to be thrust upon the heirs against their will?  

These gadhas have a simple choice of saying 'no'.  Instead what most of them seem to do is to take the plunge - after all, when the apple is dangled in front of you, why not savour it?  If it works out, fine; if not - 'hey, it is such a bad field..!  I barely survived it!'

Another star-kid - a successful one - was reported to have said, 'it's a free world, there's opportunity for anybody to make it big.'  Sorry, lady; beg to differ!  A rank outsider who has no prior connections with Industry insiders, who has no godfather/mother to guide him/her, who has no chance of getting a well coordinated grand launchpad, has NO opportunity to make it big - not as much as a star-kid who is blessed with all these criteria (minus looks and talent), anyway.

What does this tell us about ourselves?  Nepotism that is so rife in our public life implies that when it comes to handing over the 'family heirloom', we would like to keep it in the family.  We like to pass on the baton to our own ilk as we feel insecure about somebody else gaining an upper hand in our chosen professions.  When there is an easy route available to instant fame, recognition, loads of moolah and power, how can one say no?

So, it's my family, my son, my daughter, my nephew, my niece, my jagir, my fiefdom, my constituency, my money, my fame, my big fat EGO... that's all that matters in the end.  Fairness be damned.  Merit be damned.  'Strugglers' - that hapless breed of wannabe actors who have to jump through hoops to land a bit-role - can take a walk! 

Reservations, newer castes and religions, demands for new states and secession from the mainland... as if these were not enough, you can add a couple of other exclusivist, divisionist, selfish phenomena to this list: nepolitics and nepollywood.

'Nepotism rocks!' did someone say?  

No sir, nepotism sucks!!



Image source: https://previews.123rf.com/images/radiantskies/radiantskies1212/radiantskies121202672/16773539-Abstract-word-cloud-for-Nepotism-with-related-tags-and-terms-Stock-Photo.jpg