We have ‘Pushpak di wedding’ in the family. This is when we get an opportunity to meet friends and relatives who we have not met for some time. Well, sometimes a lot longer than ‘some time’. Discussing the past years is a small part of all the other rituals and celebratory stuff. There are comparatively newer things like hashtags and WhatsApp groups with excel-sheets. I call them the modern-day rangoli.
Besides these, we in the family have Dev-vrat Arya, our family priest from Arya Samaj. He has his own unique technique of conducting a havan at home. He has quite a collection of two-liners and four-liners that keep entertaining us after every few complex mantras in Sanskrit. There are little stories, pithy sayings, maxims, and even snippets from our past havan gatherings that get included in his musings. I have always felt his ways to be so much more charming than a dry chanting of mantras… or simply having bhajan interludes.
A couple of verses that he popped at us this time:
Na hans ke seekhen
Na roke seekhen
Agar seekhna hai
Kisi ka hoke seekhen
A rough translation:
Learning with a smile
Or tears in the eyes
Matches not learning
By absolute submission
The second verse that made us smile:
Aapke husn ka jalwa
Zameen se aasmaan tak hai
Mujhe yeh dekhna hai
Meri nazar kahan tak hai
A rough translation:
The fame of your charm
Transcends the skies
Only I will know what
And for how far I see
The above verses are simply memorable, though my rough translation may not have done the kind of justice it deserves.
There were other things he talked about in between all his mellifluous chanting. One of these had everything to do with focus and learning. The sequence, he told us, is ‘Dhyan – Dharna – Samadhi’ which in simpler terms is all about letting a single thought isolate itself from the surrounding chaos to then rise transform itself into a do-able action. It is only when this happens that realization or a deeper understanding emerges.
Another was when he asked Pushpak, my nephew, to wear three threads over his shoulders. He called them ‘Rishi-rrn – Pitr-rrn – Dev-rrn’ which simply means we have a debt towards our wise men, our ancestors, and our Gods. It translates into our obligation to wisdom, culture, and religion that has reached us and all those steps we now do not have to take to reach where we have reached.
According to Dev-vrat, the actions to adopt must include ‘satya – daya – nyay’ and that it is not surprising that where truth, compassion, and justice pop up, the quality of life gets a breather.
Now, before I forget, I am at Jhansi to attend the wedding of Pushpak with Virakshi. I am sure Pushpak has grasped some of these tongue-in-cheek interludes of Dev-vrat and will remember them in times to come.
