Bhagavadgeeta personified !

An encounter with a simple soul and his umbrella (and a lesson in Bhagavadgeeta)

Few days back we visited a seasonal waterfall near Ponda. The falls is on the slope of a nearby hill. It was raining and we had planned to walk in the rain and get wet. We were going under the fall anyway. We took the car halfway and parked it on the mainroad where it branched towards the hill. The place has a small roadside shrine of an unknown deity.

Two of us had reached the place early. Since it was raining we stood under the awning of a roadside shop waiting for the third person. There was an elderly gentleman in front of the shrine. As we watched, he wiped the shrine clean, lit a few incense sticks, offered a few flowers and came to where we stood. He had an umbrella in his hand. 

“Do you want an umbrella ?” He offered his umbrella to us. He had seen us alight from the car and since we stood under a shelter, thought that we were waiting for the rain to stop.

We politely declined his offer and I asked him “Don't you need the umbrella yourself ?”

“Oh. I don't really need it. I am going to be around here. I belong to the ‘zalmi’ community and stay closeby”  

He told me that people from his community took care of the shrine and a few other small temples nearby. They attend to the daily maintenance and upkeep. It is a traditional voluntary work.  

“You don't know us and you are offering your umbrella. What if we don't return it to you?”

“Why will you not return it ?” He retorted. “You will use it when it is raining and after that you will give it back. And if you don't return it, I will take it as god’s will !”

He spoke very casually but the words stuck in my mind. He said he took care of the cleaning and maintenance of the nearby temples. From the way he spoke it wasn’t a burden or compulsion. He considered it a privilege. He does not derive any benefit from the activity. It is just ‘Nishkaama karma’ upon which Krishna insists in Bhagavadgeeta. 

Work or a task done without any expectations, as a service to society or god !

He felt that we were in need of an umbrella and offered his umbrella to us. We were  strangers. The thought that we may not return it did not cross his mind. He was a good man and considered us to be good. “सर्व भूतस्थमात्मानाम सर्व भूतानिचात्मनि ईक्षते योगयुक्तात्म”  The yogi sees himself in others and everyone in himself, says BG.  

And his final statement - accepting the will of God, actually is what Krishna advises Arjuna to adapt !

That ‘zalmi’ gentleman was Bhagavdgeeta personified !    

‘Kaala RiNa’ - Nashaananda

I understand that there are many types of ‘RiNas’ viz Dhana riNa, anna riNa,

pitru riNa, guru riNa etc etc.  A ‘riNa’ is something that you owe someone or

what someone owes you. It could be in this life or one of the previous lives.

If someone makes you part with your money for no benefit, we say, maybe

you had his/her riNa. Meaning you probably owed him/her in your previous life .

Most of us have heard it. I will have to add ‘Kaala RiNa’ - the amount of time

you owe someone - to the list after my recent experience. 

I must have somehow made someone waste an hour or two due to my actions

in some earlier life and hence the fellow came to me yesterday to claim that

time back ! Actually what happened is like this. 

We were about to close the clinic last evening around 7pm. I understand that

it is the time when business picks up for many. But in our practice everything

ends at seven. Since I stay above my clinic on the first floor, I asked my helpers

to close down and I came up. Within a minute one of them came saying “ sir

there is an unruly patient in the waiting room. He forced himself inside without

even removing his footwear and he is sitting there eating our biscuits. He is

not listening to anything we say.” 

I went down to check. I saw this fellow - actually a patient whom I had seen in

the clinic a month back and who never turned up for further appointments -

sitting in the waiting room with his shoes on, a helmet on his head and a

packet of biscuits in his hands. He got up as soon as he saw me and offered

me one of the biscuits. (If you are wondering about the biscuit packet - my

helpers usually make tea for themselves after work and enjoy a few minutes

of chitchat while munching biscuits and drinking tea. Hence we store some

biscuits and tea). I refused the biscuit and asked him what he was doing there.

He opened his mouth to answer but no words came out of his mouth. In fact,

there was no space for words. His mouth was full of biscuit crumbs and

whiskey fumes !  

I sternly told him to close his mouth, keep the biscuits packet down and

leave the waiting room. He was not ready to move. It was raining outside,

the waiting room was dry and cosy and it contained biscuits ! He was probably

hungry. But it was not possible for me to play host to a drunkard - I will call

him Nashaananda because he seemed to have a great measure of both

‘nasha’ and ‘ananda’ - who was tight as a tick because he liked my waiting

room and biscuits. So, I opened the door, firmly took the packet of biscuits

from his hands and pulled him from his seat. Very reluctantly and very

unsteadily he got up and stood there swaying back and forth. I held his

shoulders, gently steered him out, took him to the street, wished him

good night and came back hoping that he would find his way back home.

I instructed my helpers to lock the clinic. 

Within a minute my helpers were back. They said (in unison) “Sir, he is

sitting on your scooter, he is very unsteady, and he is trying to start the

vehicle” I ran out again taking an umbrella with me. The fellow was sitting

on MY scooter which was parked in front of my clinic, swaying dangerously,

trying to insert HIS scooter key into the keyhole with an unsteady hand !

I first re-adjusted the stand of my scooter which was about to give way,

pulled the fellow  from the seat and again took hold of his hands and led him

away from the scooter. I realised that he must have somehow ridden a scooter

to reach my clinic and asked him where he had kept his scooter ? (His helmet

was still on his head). But other than a very stupid smile, he had nothing

to offer. He stood in the pouring rain, getting wetter and wetter, with his

helmet on his head and a very stupid smile on his face. 

Now, I did not know what to do with him. I did not want him to come back

to my parking space and sleep there the whole night in the rain. And I was

not prepared to offer him our guest room. I was feeling sorry for him but at

a loss as to what to do with him. I did not want him to locate his scooter

either.  Because if he succeeded in starting it, it would be a disaster. 

Meanwhile my helpers were concerned about me and had called my son.

In a few minutes my son arrived. Together we made the fellow locate his

mobile phone which was in one of his pockets, took it into our possession

and tried to find some contacts. But it was locked and this inebriated fellow

did not remember any number, code or picture ! He gave his phone to us and

stood there swaying. It looked like he was trying to say “Ok, now that you

have my phone, amuse yourselves”. 

Now, we had no other option. I called the police control room and told them

that I had a harmless drunkard on hand and that I did not know what to do

with him. I was expecting them to say that they have better things to bother

about than a harmless drunkard. But I was pleasantly surprised to see a patrol

vehicle arrive in minutes !  There was no need for me to say anything. One look

at the man and they understood the situation. They made him take his helmet

off, put him in their car and asked me to follow them to the station and

lodge a complaint. 

When I reached the station I found the fellow sitting in the corridor on a bench.

He seemed quite happy sitting there looking at the happenings around. As we

entered, he got up and unsuccessfully tried to walk to the door. The police

decided to put him in a room and as they led him there, another gentleman

arrived intending to lodge a ‘missing’ complaint. He took a look at our

Nashananda, gave a surprised cry, slapped him on the back and enquired

what was happening? He got the same beautiful smile with which all the earlier

questions had been answered. 

I learnt that the latest entry was a family friend of Nashaananda, and

explained everything to him. He was eager to take possession of the fellow.

He gave an undertaking to the police that he would escort the man and hand

him over to his family. I was relieved, and so were the police. An officer asked

me if the fellow had caused any damages and whether I intended lodging a

complaint ? I said no. Other than taking away an hour and a half of my time

and three biscuits, there were no charges against him !

Everybody left the station, the police got involved with another case and I

returned home an hour and a half late for my dinner and I coined the word

‘Kaala riNa’. I have no idea in which previous life of mine I had robbed an

hour and a half from Nashaananda and how ! 

An old patient better than an old doctor !!??

I joined the Goa health services in 1982. I was transferred to Ponda in 1986 and I

have been in Ponda since then. Earlier in the government hospital and now in

Private practice. I have spent nearly forty years in practice at Ponda. 

Young children whom I treated at the beginning of my practice are now grown up adults

and have their own children. They sometimes bring them for consultation. One of my

old patients recently brought her granddaughter and said that I now have the third

generation under my care ! I was overwhelmed by the faith and goodwill. Felt privileged

to have treated three generations and retained the goodwill ! This qualifies me to be

called an ‘old dentist’.  Some people use a better term and say  ‘an experienced one’ ! 

Geeta is one of my very old patients. She has experienced the entire gamut of

dentistry in my clinic. Cleaning, fillings, extractions, root canals, implant and whatnot.

Luckily for me, whatever has been done to her teeth, seems to be fine till now. 

Having undergone such a lot of procedures she is naturally very conscious about

her dental health and consults me at the slightest hint of trouble.

She visited the clinic a few days back saying that she has some unpleasant sensation

in one of her teeth and that she suspects a cavity. She pointed to a place between

two of her upper teeth. I examined the teeth and only found a bit of roughness on the

surface of one of the teeth. I told her that there is no need to do anything immediately

and that we may take a look after six months. But she insisted that I do a ‘filling’ and

cover up the roughness. 

When I started scraping the surface to place a sealant, I found that there really was a

cavity and that the tooth was actually decayed. I continued and completed the filling.

After finishing my work I told her that I was wrong in my diagnosis and that she was right.

I assured her that the cavity has been attended to and there is no cause for any concern.  

She laughed and said “They say that ‘an old patient is better than a new doctor’ isn’t it ?

In my case  an old patient is better than an old doctor too !” 

Bhagavadgeeta’ in Dentistry.

 ‘

The first case of the first day of the new year turned out to be an irritation. We had just opened the door when this patient arrived. She was suffering from pain and swelling associated with an infected grinder tooth. The infection had spread to other places in the face causing difficulty in swallowing the food. She hadn’t eaten anything since last evening. She walked in with difficulty swaying due to weakness and was about to fall anytime. 

That is nothing to be irritated about. I see that quite often in my profession. 

Her husband said that the trouble started a week back and they had consulted another doctor.  Some medicines had been given and she had consumed all of them. But the condition had only worsened. The doctor had continued treating her, injecting and prescribing other useless stuff which made no difference to the condition whatsoever. That was a bit of irritation but not much. I see that too, many times.

The doctor in question has no knowledge of either dentistry or the medicines that he had been prescribing. And these people had persevered with that doctor in spite of the condition deteriorating day by day and had now ended up in my clinic making me responsible for setting everything right. That was the irritation. I was angry with that doctor who had no business treating the case and this stupid patient for having persevered with him. I had just begun to shout at the patient when I remembered the verse from Bhagavadgeeta which I was trying to memorise. 

“ಅದ್ವೇಷ್ಟಾ ಸರ್ವ ಭೂತಾನಾಮ್ ಮೈತ್ರ ಕರುಣ ಏವ ಚ - ನಿರ್ಮಮೋ ನಿರಹಂಕಾರಃ ಸಮ ದುಃಖ ಸುಖ ಕ್ಷಮೀ - ಸಂತುಷ್ಟಮ್ ಸತತಂ ಯೋಗೀ ಯದಾತ್ಮ ಧೃಡ ನಿಶ್ಚಯ - ಮಯ್ಯಾರ್ಪಿತ ಮನೋರ್ಬುದ್ಧಿ ಯೋ ಭಕ್ತ ಸ ಮೇ ಪ್ರಿಯ”

He, who doesn’t hate anyone, who is friendly and kind to everyone, has no ego or attachments, is equanimous and ready to forgive others, satisfied with himself, firm in his beliefs, does everything as an offering to me - is the one dear to me.  

ಯಸ್ಮಾನ್ನೋದ್ವಿಜತೇ ಲೋಕಾ ಲೋಕಾನ್ನದ್ವಿಜತೇ ಚ ಯಃ, ಹರ್ಷಾಮರ್ಷ ಭಯೋದ್ವೇಗೈರ್ಮುಕ್ತೋ ಯಃ - ಸ ಚ ಮೇ ಪ್ರಿಯ. 

He, who doesn’t harm the world and who is unaffected by the ways of the world, not carried away by excesses of emotions - is the one dear to me. 

I told myself “Raghu, try to put into practice what you are trying to study. Don't be angry with that doctor, have compassion towards the patient who is suffering, Don't get carried away by the ways of the world and consider the treatment as an offering to the almighty”. 

I cooled down, examined the patient calmly, did the best I could and regained my peace !

Serendipity 2

 I first attended a serendipity event in 2019 and wrote about it. This is a bit more detailed account.

 

‘Serendipity Arts Festival’ is supposed to be one of the largest arts festivals in India. It is promoted by the Serendipity Arts Foundation. Panaji, the capital of Goa is the usual venue and it happens during November - December every year. It runs for a week and is held at more than half a dozen venues across Panaji. 10 - 15 different programmes everyday from 9am to 10pm. There are workshops, performances, exhibitions and many more events based on Music, Arts, Creative arts, Cooking, Sculpting, Writing, Dance, Traditional art forms and what not. 

We have been attending programmes of our interest since the last three years. I attended a programme named ‘River Raga’ two days back and also yesterday. It is held from 5pm to 6 pm everyday. River Raga is one of our favorites. The venue is a ferry Boat. A platform is made at one end of the deck for the performers and seating is arranged for about 250 people. 

Entry to the ferry starts around 4.30 pm, the Ferry starts sailing exactly at 5pm and the performance begins. It is an enjoyable one hour of sailing on the river Mandovi listening to music while taking in the surrounding sights and experiencing the sea breeze. The ferry docks back at 6pm when the performance ends. 

The first one that I attended was a Carnatic Classical concert by Vidushi Varijashree Venugopal, accompanied on the Mridangam by Vidwan Manjunath. Yesterday it was Pandit Prattyush Banerjee on Sarod accompanied by Pandit Mayank Bedekar, a well known Goan artist on the Tabla. 

There will be many events which are not of my interest but I like the Festival as a whole. I am impressed by the attention to details and the discipline. 

The programmes start and end as mentioned in the list. There are hundreds of volunteers all over the venues who courteously provide information and guide the visitors. There is a continuous free transport service between the venues available for the asking. Most of the programmes are free and open to all. Few with limited seats are ticketed but not exorbitant. Online registration for the programmes is a must. Volunteers at the venue help with registration if one is unable to do it. 

I would love to attend many of the events but can’t make it to all of them because of the distance. Ponda is 30kms from Panaji. We select a few which are convenient. After the ‘River Raga’ yesterday, I also attended a wonderful song and dance performance. 

I noticed that there were many visitors who had come to Goa just for the sake of ‘Serendipity Festival’. December is a busy month in Goa, with Christmas and the crazily crowded new year celebrations dominating the activities. Looks like it is going to be more and more crowded. 

I have posted some related pictures below. The shop is one of the many such shops selling Christmas decorations at the Panaji market. The truck is a mobile toilet truck at one of the venues of Serendipity. By the way, in keeping with my age, I tend to rate a place or an event by the access to and the cleanliness of the toilets. Serendipity gets a distinction here too ! 

Dwelling on Donkey’s milk !

The first food that almost every human tastes is mother’s milk.

Some unlucky human kids survive on formulated milk. In due course,

most of us gradually shift to cow’s milk and remain there.

(‘Cow’ here includes buffalo) Some turn vegans and some leave out

milk in later life but these are exceptions.   

There are some, the most famous being Gandhi, I mean the Mahatma,

who deviated and consumed milk of other animals. Goat in Gandhi’s case.

In the deserts I believe people use Camel’s milk and at higher altitudes

Yak’s milk. One of our poems in the primary section had the lines

“ಸವಿದು ಮೆದ್ದರೊ ಯಾರು ಪೂರ್ವದಿ ಹುಲಿಯ ಹಾಲಿನ ಮೇವನು”. It was  a poem

eulogising ancestors of Coorg people. It means “in the olden days

our ancestors drank tiger’s milk”. But I don't think anyone really

drank tiger’s milk. 

Donkey’s milk was in the news during COVID. For ‘boosting the

immune system’. (A term which I have not been able to understand.) 

And later it caught on as a product rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins,

antioxidants and what not ! I understand bottled donkey’s milk is

available online at a fabulous price. $ 160 - 250 per bottle. Google

says that the cost of a litre of donkey’s milk is between Rs 3000 - 5000. 

I haven’t used it nor have I seen anyone use it. But my senses say

that its benefits are questionable. There are so many weird things in

the world. I have seen people massaging a pralysed limb with pigeon

blood and eating the meat of a Monitor Lizard to revive the same.

Drinking Donkey’s milk may not be as bad as that but probably not

much better. (I will have to swallow my words along with Donkey’s

milk if the scientific world tomorrow hails Donkey’s milk as best !) 

This morning I was walking back home after buying my Nandini Milk

( Brand name of milk produced by Karnataka Milk Federation - assumed

to be cow’s milk). From a side street I heard a loud speaker blaring

“ಕತ್ತೆ ಹಾಲು, ಕತ್ತೆ ಹಾಲು, ಮನೆಮುಂದೆ ಕರೀತದೆ ಕತ್ತೆ ಹಾಲು” (Donkey’s milk,

Donkey’s milk, will milk in front of your house, Donkey’s milk)

As I neared the intersection, I saw a fellow leading a donkey on

the end of a rope. He turned onto the road I was on and walked

ahead of me. The loud speaker was tied to the Donkey’s back.  

A little ahead of us was an elderly gentleman standing in the front

yard of a house. As we neared the house, the donkey fellow went

to the old man and enquired if he wanted donkey’s milk? 

The old man replied in jest  “ಹಸು ಹಾಲು ಕುಡಿದೇ ನಾವೆಲ್ಲಾ ಕತ್ತೆಗಳಾಗಿದೀವಿ ರಾಜಾ.

ಇನ್ನು ನೀನು ಕತ್ತೆ ಹಾಲು ಕುಡಿಸಿದ್ರೆ ನಮ್ಗತಿ ಏನು?” - (even after drinking cow’s

milk we have become donkeys, my dear fellow, what if you make us

drink donkey’s milk ?) And as I got closer, he addressed me

“ಆಲ್ವಾ ಸಾರ್, ಏನಂತೀರ” (Isn’t it sir ? what do you say?) 

I endorsed his words wholeheartedly and walked home laughing

within myself, appreciating his wit. 

(Since I did not have my phone on me, I couldn’t get a picture.

So, borrowed a representative picture from the net)

Magazines and My motherIn

 

This turned out longer than expected, as it happens often with me. Also, I started with something and reached un-intended places. They say the writing gets longer when one is not sure of what one wants to write. That is exactly the case. I keep going wherever my mind takes me. Bear with me. 

One of my cousins, who is a resident of the US, was recently on a visit to her home country, yet again. As is her practice whenever she visits India, she bought Jewels, trinkets, clothes, eatables, artefacts and what not - keeping in mind her son, daughter, husband, friends and relatives who are in the US. Her mother in law, who is 90+, didn’t need anything. She had only one requirement - all the available kannada magazines. I had the privilege of fulfilling her requirement - my gift to her. 

Years back, in every street corner, we used to have a shop selling these magazines along with ‘beedi’ & cigarettes, spiced groundnut, banana, mysore pak, coconut burfi, ‘chikki’ and such other items. Magazines were hung on strings tied to the low roof of the shop, a big bunch of bananas hung in a corner on a rope, cigarettes stacked on a side shelf and sweets displayed enticingly in big glass jars. One oil lamp would be burning all day on a shelf outside and strips cut from the empty cigarette packets would be placed in a box next to the lamp - for the benefit of smokers who wanted to light their cigarettes. 

These shops have dwindled in recent years but some of them still exist. While they sell some of the products named above and other packed snacks, only a few of them keep magazines. One such shop exists opposite the jain temple at fourth block Jayanagar, and from there I could procure all the magazines shown above.  

The last time I bought kannada magazines was about seven years ago. Just before my mother died. My mother was a voracious reader and was always in need of new books and magazines. She had only two requirements. Her medicines and books. I usually purchased her medicines once every fifteen days. On the thirteenth day I would get the first reminder “ಔಷಧಿ ಆಗೋಯ್ತಪ್ಪ. ಇನ್ನೆರಡು ದಿನಕ್ಕೆ ಉಳಿದಿದೆ”. (medicines are over, I have just enough for the next two days) If I failed to buy them, there would be another reminder the next morning. 

I bought Kannada books for her whenever I visited Bengaluru and purchased the weekly magazines at Ponda every Tuesday. We had only one shop selling Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam magazines in Ponda - Goa, and he would get them usually on tuesdays. Sometimes they would be sold out before I reached there and sometimes the magazines did not arrive. On such occasions I got them through my son who attended college at Panaji (capital of Goa) or obtained them from friends who visited Margao, a bigger city twenty kilometers away.  But I did manage to get her magazines for her. 

Apart from the above, my mother did not ask for anything. She had given up wearing jewelry and she did not even go out to buy her clothes.  Either my sister or my wife attended to her necessities. She wasn’t interested in going anywhere or getting involved in anything. Her travel was restricted to Pune, Goa and Chennai where her three children lived. Irrespective of where she was, her routine and lifestyle remained the same. Most of the time she sat by the side of a large window looking at the birds playing on the bushes outside. She chanted her ‘stotras’ in the morning, was reading most of the time and dozed now and then. 

Now, with me nearing seventy, whenever I think of my mother, my thoughts invariably turn towards my future life. What would I do when my body no longer listened to me ? How am I going to cope with the coming years? My wish is that I should live my later years like my mother. With detachment and equanimity.  And if I am lucky, die like her. 

My mother’s death, I mean the way it came about, has left a strong imprint on my mind.  She died not because she had to die, but because she willed herself to die. 

In one of my favorite verses from his Mankutimmana kagga, Sri DVG says  

ಒಂದಗುಳು ಹೆಚ್ಚಿರದು, ಒಂದಗುಳು ಕೊರೆಯಿರದು, ತಿಂದು ನಿನ್ನನ್ನಋಣ, ತೀರುತಲೆ ಪಯಣ 

ಒಂದು ಚಣ ಹಿಂದಿರದು, ಕಾದಿರದು ಮುಂದಕುಂ, ಸಂದಲೆಕ್ಕವದೆಲ್ಲ - ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ 

(Not a grain more, nor a grain less. Eat your share and get going. Not a second more, nor a second less - these are already accounted for ! Predestined.) 

I agree that every death is predestined. But my mother made it look like she was in control of the event and invited it when she wanted ! She fell and fractured her thigh. She was operated on and was fine. But she did not want the long recuperation. She had had enough of this life.  She willed to die and death came to her ! 

I may sound melancholic writing about old age and death but they are facts of life and one can not run away from them.

Jatasya hi dhruvor mrutyu, dhruvam janma mrutasyacha

tasmad apariharyaarthe na twam shochitum arhasi 

“For one who is born - death is a certainty and so is birth for the one who dies. You are not to lament about the inevitable.” -  is the famous quote from Bhagavadgeeta. 

The magazines which I mentioned above, brought up the memories associated with my mother yet again and the other thoughts tagging on with that memory. Memories of the way she lived and the way she died. Her death, in particular. It has been an answer to many of my questions and at the same time a question which has no answer ! 

(If anyone is interested in the details, please go to www.dentaldiaries.blogspot.com and search ‘The last days of my mother”- Sept 4, 2016)