PONGAL OR SANKRAANTHI

LAND OF FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS THY NAME IS BHARAT.

I am inspired to pen the following after listening to my Guru BRAHMASRI SAMAVEDAM VARU on a devotional Telugu channel on the auspicious occasion of SANKRANTHI, on the concept of festival and its cultural as well as philosophical background. Let me greet through this blog all my fellow Indians across the world, a very happy, peaceful and prosperous festive season, called different names depending on geographical positioning of place of living in this ancient Country. Some call it Makar Sankranti, some Pongal in south India and the rest of States with different names, nonetheless with the same spirit of festivities connected with prosperity of life and living derived from harvesting in a Country based on agrarian ethos and economy, notwithstanding indiscriminate urbanization of social living, no matter whether one lives in a hamlet, village, town or City and irrespective of literacy or level of education of people of particular place.

All festivals in this country are actually events of celebration from multiple angles, depending on the culture of that particular area. A festival is an event inextricably linked with the Nature to fine tune the humans, with ability to think and act upon, living there with every living, semi live and non living organism. The spirituality also is fine tuned with nature to explore and understand the nature in the first place and then explore the thing/un known or invisible power/God/ beyond this nature, so as to not only lead quality life with utmost efficiency but also to share the same with fellow beings, not necessarily humans but with every organism around.

Confining to current festival which is celebrated in southern part of the India has direct link with significant movement of planet Sun in its orbit or as per science the earth movement in relation to perhaps fixed Sun in this solar family, brings in its wake certain changes in the atmosphere, ushering in slow but steady heating up of the place. Our ancient scriptures believe the world as a happening of cycles of play of Fire and Water, the two of the five elements which is what is perceived in the Yagya of Hindu school of thought. AGNI-SOMATHKAMAM JAGAT is the Vedic wisdom as if the two sides of the same coin. Sun is the source of energy or life on this planet, is the general belief both as per old school or modern science. If we reduce the measure of time expressed as one year into a day of twenty four hours sharing more or less equally between Day and Night, the first half is Day, when the play is by Sun, representing Fire and the second part is night where the play is by Moon representing Water as can be seen in the season of cool rains and sowing of seeds and crops coming up through- out the second half leading to fruition at the end. Sun heats up the earth in the first half to convert the salty and other waters into clouds to facilitate rains and break the ground for the seeds to be sown to sink deep enough to sprout. When He is comparatively cool in the second half, through an array of, Sastra says one thousand Rays, (mind you, each ray of Sun has been given different names by Visionaries, that the ancient Sages of this land were, to acquire such deep knowledge and share the same for the future generations, so as to live in harmony with nature to bestow upon organism uninterrupted flow of energy, life and living on this planet). No wonder therefore, that the majority of the people of this land propitiate Sun as the visible God and Moon to as the other face of Sun, quite in consonance with modern science. Period, pre dawn, everyday is pure, serene and peaceful with least pollution of any kind for the seeker to seek in solitude, the Truth. In the same token, DHANURMASA or the solar month, prior to Pongal, is the pre dawn period if we take one year as one day, when ANDAL propitiated Lord Vishnu in praise of his play with nature to make people happy after a fruitful harvest subject to Karma or as a result of Karma of past or present by individual human being or seeker.

I own the deficiency or inadequacy, if any fully, but ascribe whatever knowledge that might have trickled, to my Guru.

Pray, God be with us in these torrid times of mankind that, HE showers grace on mankind, to be free from all kinds of animosity and rancor between peoples, cultures and countries. Hope wisdom dawns on trigger happy heads of Countries to not lose sight of their fundamental duty to human race to protect them than catapult them into war.

With greetings,

G K VISWANTHAM