Saturday, January 20, 2018

First Verse (Shloka) of Valmiki Ramayana - Myriad Facets

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valmiki_Ramayana.jpg#/media/File:Valmiki_Ramayana.jpg)


मा निषाद ! प्रतिष्ठां त्वम् गमः शाश्वतिः समाः
यत् क्रौञ्चनां मिथुनादेकंsवधि काममोहितं ||

Maa Nishada Pratistham Tvamagamahsāsvati Samaa
Yat Kraunchamithunaadekam Avadhi Kaamamohitam ||

This shloka is not only considered to be the first shloka from which the Hindu epic ‘Ramayana’ by Maharshi Valmiki has started but also this is considered to be the first ever ‘shloka’ to come in the history of Sanskrit Literature.

The saying suggests that after uttering this statement of his, bewildered Maharshi Valmiki tried to reconfirm from his disciple, the great Rishi Bharadwaj, whether he had really spoken those words.

“Did you just hear that, Bharadwaj?” He asked him with surprise.

“I have just pronounced something that is sequenced in Eight by Eight letters and it has Four equal receptions making it a thirty-two letters poetic recital.” He explained himself, unbelievably. Rishi Bharadwaj was too stupefied to say anything.

Leaving mythology behind, he later termed this sequence of poetic meter as “Shloka”, and thus the first shloka came into Sanskrit literature.

This was not only the beginning of ‘Shlokas’ but also it was the beginning of one of the greatest epics of the world, which is ‘Ramayana’.

Interestingly, this first shloka had nothing to do with ‘Ramayana’ as these were curse words from Maharshi Valmiki. He had cursed the hunter who had killed a bird called (at that time) ‘Kraunch’ but ironically later on this became the beginning point or prelude to ‘Ramayana’ and so at times, it is assigned to be the first shloka.

To begin with, this curse literally meant “Oh Hunter! May you not get respect for eons for you killed one unsuspecting ‘Kraunch’ from the pair when they were excited making love with one other.” This curse had come out inadvertently in anger when he saw that happening in front of him while taking his bath in the ‘Tamasaa’ river.

To continue, this statement of anger had a far-fetched meaning; as one of the incarnations of Shiva was planned (according to Mythology) as ‘Vyadha’ which is a synonym for ‘Nishada’.

“How could I do this? How could I involve Shiva in all this when he is having nothing to do with it?” He thought later.

The importance of words and their play is meticulously and flawlessly depicted in what he did next. I am again reiterating, mythology apart and when I am writing this I mean leaving the sayings of ‘Lord Brahma’s’ and ‘Devarshi Narada’s’ appearance at the scene to control the damage that had happened.

“’Ma Nishada’ …. ‘Ma Nishada’ … ‘Ma Nishada’ ….” He kept repeating the first two words of his speech in the presence of Rishi Bharadwaja.

“’ Ma’ didn’t this mean ‘Goddess Lakshmi, ‘the symbolic of Mahalakshmi’? He was in monologue.

“‘Nishada’ …. ‘Nishada’! One who is abode?” He continued his monologue.

“‘Pratistham Tvamagamahsāsvati Samaa’, your glory be for ever!” He quipped and smiled and a new literal meaning of this ‘Shloka’ was generated simply by moving the punctuation and exclamation marks.

This is the beauty of the Sanskrit language which is free-moving and is without any restriction of sentence formation. The subject, predicate, object, nouns, pronouns, verbs, conjunctions, interjections, et al are all free-moving; and with every permutation and combination, it is a meaningful sentence that conveys the same meaning.

The refinement that came out of the cursed shloka was thus “O abode of Mahalakshmi!(Vishnu, of whose incarnation is ‘Rama’), may you be glorified forever and ever because you have been a conduit for bringing an end to attachment in a sensuous manner to objects. You brought an end to this crude way of indulging in life beyond needs and for lustful gratifications as the motif of life. May you live long! May your glory be immortalized.” Thus absolving Shiva and bringing in ‘Rama’ (Incarnation of Vishnu who is the spouse of Lakshmi) in the picture.

To arrive at this meaning the change in the shloka that was done is merely the change in exclamation marks.
मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वम् गमः शाश्वतिः समाः !
यत् क्रौञ्चनां मिथुनादेकं, अवधि काममोहितं ||

Maa ! Nishada, Pratistham Tvamagamahsāsvati Samaa
Yat Kraunchamithunaadekam, Avadhi Kaamamohitam ||

Going beyond a little further, this permutation and combination of poetics also includes in itself the art of involving many more unsaid things in limited words and in a rhythmic way.

The Valmiki ‘Ramayana’ starts with the following ‘Shloka’ (Verse)
तपः स्वाध्याय निरताम् तपस्वी वाग्विदाम् वरम् |
नारदम् परिपप्रच्छ वाल्मीकिः मुनि पुंगवम् || १-१-१

Tapah svadhyaya nirataam tapasvi vagvidam vara
naradam paripapracha valmikih muni pumgavam || 1-1-1 

Mark the first word of this first ‘Shloka’. It is ‘Ta’. It is the first letter of Gayatri Mantra.

Gayatri Mantra
“(ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः ।) तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरेण्यं॒ भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑धीमहि । धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त् ||” 

“(Om Bhur bhuvah swah) ‘Ta’tsavitur vareniyam bhargodevasya dheemahi dhiyoyonah prachodayaat ||”

The twenty-four thousand verses of the Valmiki Ramayana have hidden, within them, at every thousandth verse, a letter of the Gayatri mantra. Valmiki Ramayana is said to have been composed based on each of the twenty-four letters of Gayatri Hymn, and a thousand verses are arranged into one book under the caption of each letter. Though that classification or dividing verses into thousand chapters is unavailable now, the twenty-four verses identified with the 24 letters of the Gayatri hymn, called Gayatri Ramayana is available.


Utpal Kant Mishra
Mumbai
Jan 19, 2018

Ref:

1) Teachings from my father (Late) Dr. Shobha Kant Mishra
2) www.swami-krishnananda.org
3) http://valmikiramayan.net
4) www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Translucency





I am, so is World
Bit of truth, a bit of lie
Translucent Image !!


Utpal Kant Mishra
Mumbai
November 26, 2017

P.S: Linking this post to 'Haiku My Heart at recuerda mi corazon '

Friday, January 13, 2017

Water & My Head




In these changing times
When I sit on river bank
Water taps my head!!


Utpal Kant Mishra
Mumbai
January 13, 2017

P.S: Linking this post to 'Haiku my Heart at 'recuerda_mi_corazon'

Friday, October 21, 2016

Ripples

(Pic From http://pixabay.com)


News flashed - Murder, felt 
Humanity died again
Splash! The ‘Stoned Ripples’!


Utpal Kant Mishra
Mumbai
October 21, 2016

P.S: Linking this write to recuerda_mi_corazon for Haiku My Heart. I am a Blogbuddy with Blogchatter.

Friday, October 7, 2016

Relation





A day of peace
When nothing exist, but we
I, We and the soul!  

Utpal Kant Mishra
Mumbai
Oct. 7, 2016

Wishing all a very happy Navratara!

P.S: Linking this write to recuerda mi corazon for 'Haiku My Heart'.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

The Blog Chatter – My Journey of Gratitude




Ah, what a journey through Half Marathon and then #MyFriendAlexa and of course #FriendlyReader. Thank you The Blog Chatter @BlogChatter for creating such a generous platform. Kudos to you for bringing together some most beautiful people to know at on place and this one place is no less than a ‘Creative Earth’. 

This Haiku is dedicated to you team @BlogChatter

Fledglings on the ground 
Creating, cuddling together
Your harnessing warmth! 

I remember how infrequent writer I am. It is more than Seven Years that I started on Blogging and had hardly written enough. I am realizing that I had written only 35 Posts with 203 Comments on my English Blog. I shall try to be a little more regular now onward.

Guess what, among these 35 posts 22 are after my joining ‘The Blog Chatter’. Thank you once again.

Within this journey of few months, I have been busy working on my first Novel (Fiction), but I met with some beautiful people whose presence itself motivated me enough to keep writing for my Blog. The Result – The Novel is searching for its Publishers and my fingers right now typing this gratitude.

The secondary result is the Alexa. Just before joining #MyFriend Alexa my Alea was in some crores and today; while writing this post’; it is 3,526,098 Global Rank. It means a lot and thank you every body for giving my writes your precious time and leaving me with your valuable comments. 

Thank you Saumy Nagayach for being stay put with me since my first short story post.

Modern Gypsy! Gypsy! Really. Thank you for giving me such valuable inputs and thank you even more for some brilliant writes of yours. I am sure that I will write a post shortly of my astral occult experiences. Some experience I have written in my Novel too . 

Tarang Sinha. Thank you for your time and hope your Novel is doing well. 

Tina Basu. Thank you. Hope you are enjoying your Haiku times. 

Maurya Amarkant, Atul Maharaj, Shalini, Rajlakshmi, Anil, Shweta Dave, Roma Gupta Sinha, Ramesh Sood, Rashmi Lingappa, Deepa, awkwardearthling , Amrita Basu Misra, MPJ, Indu Chibber, Vinay Leo R, Shalini19, Subha Rajagopal, Payal, Deepti, Ambrish Tripathi, Uppal and All, I cannot thank you much. I am because you are. 

This write (in Sanskrit) is dedicated to you all (This is about the concept of oneness against duality. This is dealt widely in my Novel) 


Twam Swaha, Twam Swadha, Twameva hi Ishwaratmika! 
Shivoham, shivotwam!! 
(त्वम् स्वाहा , त्वम् स्वधा, त्वमेव ही इश्वरात्मिका 
शिवोऽहं, शिवोऽत्वं !!) 

In this journey I have gone through many brilliant writes. On some I have commented and on some I was not able to comment. They all are brilliant and forgive me for not commenting upon. 

The auspicious seasons of festivals are here. I wish all prosperous, Navratra, Deepavali and Chaath. 

I am anticipating keeping in touch with you all. 

Utpal Kant Mishra
Mumbai
Sep. 28, 2016

P.S: This write is for #Blogchatter #MyFriendAlexaWeek 4.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Bliss - A Haiku

(Pic From http://pixabay.com)


New Dawn, Morning bliss 
Smiling sun at horizon
Night slept peacefully!


Utpal Kant Mishra
Mumbai
Sep. 23, 2016

P.S: Linking this write to recuerda mi corazon for Haiku My Heart and also to #MyFriendAlexa Week 4 @BlogChatter #BlogChatter