Nirvana Shatakam by Shri Shankara: Theory of Non-Dualism:
This is one of the stotras written by Shri Shankara BhagavatPada. This stotra is identifying himself with the almighty. (Lord Shiva). This stotra clearly explains the theory of Non-Dualism (Advaita: oneness between Jeevatma i.e human being and Paramatma i.e Almighty).
Herewith attached the stotra and the meaning.
Of course there are lot of links and resources in web about this stotra.
ಮನೋ ಬುದ್ಧ್ಯಹಂಕಾರ ಚಿತ್ತಾನಿನಾಹಂ
ನ ಚ ಶ್ರೋತ್ರ ಜಿಹ್ವೇ ನ ಚ ಘ್ರಾಣ ನೇತ್ರೇ
ನ ಚ ವ್ಯೋಮ ಭೂಮಿರ್ ನ ತೇಜೋ ನ ವಾಯುಃ
ಚಿದಾನಂದ ರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ

ನ ಚ ಪ್ರಾಣ ಸಂಗ್ಯೋ ನ ವೈ ಪಂಚ ವಾಯುಃ
ನ ವಾ ಸಪ್ತ ಧಾತುಃ ನ ವಾ ಪಂಚ ಕೋಶಃ
ನ ವಾಕ್ ಪಣಿ ಪಾದಂ ನ ಚೋಪಸ್ತ ಪಾಯುಃ
ಚಿದಾನಂದ ರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ

ನ ಮೇ ದ್ವೇಷ ರಾಗೌ ನ ಮೇ ಲೋಭ ಮೋಹೌ
ಮದೋ ನೈವ ಮೇ ನೈವ ಮಾತ್ಸರ್ಯ ಭಾವಃ
ನ ಧರ್ಮೋ ನ ಚಾರ್ಥೋ ನ ಕಾಮೊ ನ ಮೋಕ್ಷಃ
ಚಿದಾನಂದ ರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ

ನ ಪುಣ್ಯಂ ನ ಪಾಪಂ ನ ಸೌಖ್ಯಂ ನ ದುಃಖಂ
ನ ಮಂತ್ರೋ ನ ತೀರ್ಥಂ ನ ವೇದಾ ನ ಯಾಜ್ಞಃ
ಅಹಂ ಭೋಜನಂ ನೈವ ಭೋಜ್ಯಂ ನ ಭೋಕ್ತಾಃ
ಚಿದಾನಂದ ರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ

ನ ಮೃತ್ಯುರ್ ನ ಶಂಕಾ ನ ಮೇ ಜಾತಿ ಭೇದಃ
ಪಿತಾ ನೈವ ಮೇ ನೈವ ಮಾತಾ ನ ಜನ್ಮ
ನ ಬಂಧುರ್ ನ ಮಿತ್ರಂ ಗುರುಃ ನೈವ ಶಿಷ್ಯಃ
ಚಿದಾನಂದ ರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ

ಆಹಂ ನಿರ್ವಿಕಲ್ಪೋ ನಿರಾಕಾರ ರೂಪೋ
ವಿಭೂತ್ವಾಶ್ಚ ಸರ್ವತ್ರ ಸರ್ವೆಂದ್ರಿಯಾಣಂ
ನ ಚಾ ಸಂಗತಂ ನೈವ ಮುಕ್ತಿರ್ ನ ಮೇಯಃ
ಚಿದಾನಂದ ರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ

Neither am I mind, nor intelligence ,
Nor ego, nor thought,
Nor am I ears or the tongue or the nose or the eyes,
Nor am I earth or sky or air or the light,
But I am Shiva the all pervading happiness,Yes, I am definitely Shiva.

Neither am I the movement due to life,
Nor am I the five airs, nor am I the seven elements,
Nor am I the five internal organs,
Nor am I voice or hands or feet or other organs,
But I am Shiva the all pervading happiness,Yes, I am definitely Shiva

I never do have enmity or friendship,
Neither do I have vigour nor feeling of competition,
Neither do I have assets, or money or passion or salvation,
But I am Shiva the all pervading happiness,Yes, I am definitely Shiva

Never do I have good deeds or sins or pleasure or sorrow,
Neither do I have holy chants or holy water or holy books or fire sacrifice,
I am neither food or the consumer who consumes food,
As I am Shiva the all pervading happiness,Yes, I am definitely Shiva

I do not have death or doubts or distinction of caste,
I do not have either father or mother or even birth,
And I do not have relations or friends or teacher or students,
As I am Shiva the all pervading happiness,Yes, I am definitely Shiva

I am one without doubts , I am without form,
Due to knowledge I do not have any relation with my organs,
And I am always redeemed,
And I am Shiva the all pervading happiness,Yes, I am definitely Shiva

Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats.

I heard about this poem by John Keats when I was in PU. My dad told me about the famous quote "Heard Melodies are swee t but those unheard are sweeter" which appealed me . I never read this at that time though.
This is a small poem. Poet talks with an old Grecian jar (urn) here.

It goes like this:
Ode on a Grecian Urn

THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape	5
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?	10
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave	15
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!	20
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!	25
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.	30
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,	35
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.	40
O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!	45
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'	50

Sheni
ನಾನು ಯಕ್ಷಗಾನದ ಕೇಳುಗನಾಗಿ, ಬಹಳವಾಗಿ ಮೆಚ್ಚಿಕೊಂಡದ್ದು ಶ್ರೀ ಶೇಣಿ ಗೋಪಾಲಕೃಷ್ಣ ಭಟ್ಟರ ಅರ್ಥಗಾರಿಕೆಯನ್ನು. ಸುಮಾರು ೭ ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ನನ್ನ ಊರಿನ ಸಮೀಪದ ಹಳ್ಳಿಯೊಂದರಲ್ಲಿ ತಾಳಮದ್ದಳೆಯೊಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಕೇಳುಗನಾಗಿ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ. "ಕರ್ಣಾರ್ಜುನ" ಆವತ್ತಿನ ಪ್ರಸಂಗ. ಶ್ರೀ ಪೆರ್ಲ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಭಟ್ಟರು ಕೃಷ್ಣ, ಶೇಣಿಯವರು ಕರ್ಣ. ಸುಮಾರು ೫ ಘಂಟೆಗಳ ಕಾಲ ನಡೆದ ಈ ತಾಳಮದ್ದಳೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರಿಬ್ಬರ ಮಾತುಗಾರಿಕೆಯ ವೈಭವವನ್ನು ಸವಿಯುವ ಸದವಕಾಶ ನಮಗೆ ಒದಗಿ ಬಂದಿತ್ತು. ಇದಲ್ಲದೆ ಬಪ್ಪನಾಡು ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರ ಮಹಾತ್ಮೆ ಯಕ್ಷಗಾನವನ್ನೂ ಒಂದು ಬಾರಿ ನೋಡಿದ್ದೆ. ಅದು ಪ್ರಾಯಶಃ ಅವರ ಕೊನೆಯ ವೇಷಗಾರಿಕೆಯಾಗಿರಬೇಕು.
ಬಹಳ ಭೋದಪ್ರದವಾದ, ನವಿರಾದ ಹಾಸ್ಯವುಳ್ಳ ಪ್ರಾದೇಶಿಕ ಕಾಸರಗೋಡು ಕನ್ನಡದ ಅರ್ಥಗಾರಿಕೆ ಅವರದು. "ಗಧಾಯುದ್ಧ" ದ ದುರ್ಯೋಧನ, "ಮಾಗಧ ವಧೆ" ಯ ಮಾಗಧ, ಕರ್ಣಾರ್ಜುನದ ಕರ್ಣನಾಗಿ, "ಕವಿರತ್ನ ಕಾಳಿದಾಸ"ದ ಕಾಳಿದಾಸನಾಗಿ ಅವರ ಮಾತುಗಾರಿಕೆ ಒಂದು ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ಛಾಪನ್ನು ಉಳಿಸುವಂತಹುದು. ಕರ್ಣಾರ್ಜುನದ "ಏನು ಸಾರಥಿ ಸರಳು ಪಾಂಡವ ಸೇನೆಯನು ಗೆಲಲಹುದೆ......" ಎಂಬ "ಪದ" ವೊಂದರ ನಂತರದ ಅರ್ಥ ನನಗೆ ಈಗಲೂ ಅಚ್ಚಳಿಯದೆ ನೆನಪಿನಲ್ಲಿದೆ.
ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಅರ್ಥಧಾರಿ ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲದೆ ಶೇಣಿಯವರು ಹರಿಕಥೆಗಳನ್ನೂ ಅದ್ಭುತವಾಗಿ ನಡೆಸಬಲ್ಲವರಾಗಿದ್ದರು. ಹೀಗೆ ಬಹುಮುಖ ಪ್ರತಿಭೆಯುಳ್ಳಮಹಾನುಭಾವರ ಅಗಲಿಕೆ ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ತುಂಬಲಾರದ ನಷ್ಟ.
ಅವರ ಆತ್ಮಕ್ಕೆ ದೇವರು ಚಿರಶಾಂತಿ ಕರುಣಿಸಲಿ.

Musings
ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಮಾಡಲು ಯುನಿಕೋಡ್ (ವಿಂಡೋಸ್ 2K)ಸಪೋರ್ಟ್ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದು ಬಹಳ ಅನುಕೂಲವಾಗಿದೆ. ಇದರ ವಿವರಗಳು sampada.net ನಲ್ಲಿ ಲಭ್ಯ. ಇಷ್ಟರ ತನಕ ಈ ಸೌಲಭ್ಯಬರೇ XP ಯೂಸರ್ ಗಳಿಗೆ ಇದ್ದಿದ್ದು ಈಗ ೨೦೦೦ ಯೂಸರ್ ಗಳಿಗೂ ವಿಸ್ತರಿಸಲ್ಪಟ್ಟಿದೆ.
ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ,
ಕೇಶವ ಮುರಳಿ.
೩೧-೫-೨೦೦೬

Musings

Robert Caldwell and Dravidian Movement:

Robert Caldwell is the Scotish missionary who came to India and supposedly pioneered the study on Dravidian Languages, mainly tamil. Here is an effort to view his works from nationalist perspective.

BackGround: After invasion of Europeans to Indian Subcontinent, as the saying goes "Bible follows the Bullet", lot of missionary activities started in India. There was a continuous effort by Portugal missionarys to christianize India by using the power of state, which is termed as Goa Inquisition.Later, many clever missionaries soon found out that India cannot be converted by force because India inherently has strong Hindu way of life which assimilates all sects and cultures in India. They tried to find a way to seperate Hindus by telling the people have different roots.

Robert Caldwell: The pioneer of this work is Robert caldwell, who termed as the father of systematic study of Dravidian Languages.He was a scotsman who was the Bishop of Tinnevely, the heartland of "Maravar Poligars" (One of the Tamil military Casts) during the time when the British were engaged in suppressing these casts.

He was born in 1819 and came to India in 1838. He settled down in a place named Idayangudi and built a church there.He was in the committe which translated the "Prayer Book" and Bible into Tamil. Caldwell married in India and his wife was a worthy helpmate who spoke Tamil fluently and helped her husbands efforts of evangelism.

Dravidian Movement: Caldwell profounded a theory that the culture and civilization of south Indian (Tamil people, per se) whom he termed as "Dravidians" is intrinsically different from North Indian. This hypothesis states that the origin of Tamil and other languages in south India is different from that of Sanskrit and other north Indian languages. It also claims that south Indians are part of a different race than north Indians. This theory lead to anti-cast movement in the starting and later to a seperatist movement by people like Ramaswamy Naiker(Periyar) who were inspired by Caldwells Ideology.

Evangelistic Efforts: For him, the the idolatry and the Sanskritic culture of the articulate Brahmins was a spiritual threat to the propagation of the Gospel, the violence of the Maravar against christians was a dire physical threat.

Writings of caldwell shows following things:

a. The British empire was destined to finally bring 'order' amongst Tamils, a large portion of whom had been more prone to the habit of war than to the arts of peace from the dawn of history in south India. The Maravar were the caste which chiefly found in Tinnevely and Madurai.They are known as a fierce and turbulent race famous for their military art. As a historian, Robert Caldwell was well aware of the hegemony of the Maravar’s martial culture in Tamil society, he wisely excluded this fact from what he desired to portray as the true "Dravidian civilization",which clearly shows his imperial and religious interests.

b. Robert Caldwell had a strong anti-Brahmin bias which is non-existent in Tamil literature and culter.He was the first and foremost christian missionary who always believed that Brahmins are stumbling block for christian evangelization.

Linguistic Evangelism:
His efforts not only discouraged the study of sanskrit in Tamilnadu, but also drove to a cleansing of Samskrit words from Tamil vocabulary.His literary works are considered as the 'theoritical foundation for Dravidian movement' in Political, Academic and cultural perspective. His book "A comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages" which is published in 1856 is considered as authentic refference for Tamil language studies. This book is reffered by all the students who study tamil language and make them to fall into the pit of Dravidian philosophy.

Aryan Invasion Theory(AIT) and Caldwell :

Aryan Invasion theory states that Vedic culture arose in India after the migration or invasion of people to India originated outside India.British rulers, European scholars and missionaries combined in an effort to destroy the roots of Hindu Culture, and used Aryan Invasion theory to sow seeds of division in the Indian society.

AIT the sinister brainchild of conquerors of foreign colonies who could only imagine that all higher culture had to come from outside 'backward' India, and who likewise assumed that a religion could only spread through a politically supported missionary effort. It created division and conflict between the peoples of India, making them vulnerable to conversion by Christian missionaries.As the creator of this Aryan-Dravidian divide theory, Bishop Caldwell, admitted his linguistic theories to be ofmore political and moral importance that being to serve the purpose of Christian missionary propaganda. Now, scholars today of both East and West believe the Vedic people who called themselves Aryan were indigenous to India, and there never was an Aryan invasion. The languages of India shows that they share common ancestry in ancient Sanskrit and Tamil.

Effects of Caldwell Theories:
The fallacy he built among the people of Tamilnadu created a seperatist movement by the people like Periyar and Karunanidhi. Whole Tamilian people have become a confused lot. They dont consider themself as Hindus and they identify as Dravidians. Word "Hindu" reffers to only Brahmins. But still, these "Dravidians" more religious compared to other south Indian people. They have immense devotion towards Hindu Gods like Murgughan and Shakthi.

However Caldwell and his descendants effort was a success story of anti-national movement. Many districts of Tamilnadu are now christianized to an extent of 45%. TamilNadu is getting ruled by two parties who follow this Dravidian theory with minor modifications. Tamilnadu has the maximum number of missionaries now. We can infer from history that once the percentage of Non-hindus increases in a territory it finally leads to seperatism. "Dharmantaran" leads to "Rashtrantharan" as we can see in the states like J&K and Nagaland.

Conclusion:

It is absolutely necsessary to build a Hindu consciousness among Tamilians and bring them back to Hindu fold. The schemes like "Ghar Wapasi" through which Christians who got converted by hook or crook can be reconverted back to Hinduism would help in this regard. The whole Tamil language grammar needs to be re-discovered on nationalist grounds. Tamilians should be educated with the fact that they are part of one of the greatest culture in world and they were integral part of Bharath for thousands of years. This will not only help for the suppression of seperatist movement also to bring back the Hindu revival.

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