JIVA AND ISVARA
From his perch on the branch of a tree, Jiva dug into the luscious fig, his beak buried deep into the fruit.
Isvara, from another branch of the same tree, looked at Jiva and felt the juice slide into his own throat, like nectar.
Jiva ate the fig bit-by-delicious-bit then rubbed his fruit-smeared beak on the rough trunk of the tree.
Isvara, his beak clean felt completely satiated by the fruit he never ate.
*Mundaka Upanishad: 3.1. 1-2. Both the birds are bound to each other in deep friendship. The first bird, Jiva, represents an individual self or soul. It lives in the human body and is covered in desires. The second bird, Isvara, is the Paramatman, an aspect of God who also lives in the heart of every living being, and is beyond sensual desire.
BEING BILINGUAL
The binaries can complement each other, or nearly split you apart.
It all depends on the wise counsel.
Just join the dots, said a glib voice in English. You’ll see a pattern, emerging.
Oh no, countered the voice in Tamil go around the dots you’ll see a lovely pulli kolam* arise from it.
*pulli kolam: In Tamil, ‘pulli’ is a dot and ‘kolam’ is a rangoli. In the traditional, elaborate rangolis that are special to Tamil Nadu, patterns are worked around multiple dots sinuously.
Dr. Lakshmi Kannan is a poet, novelist, short story writer and critic. She has published twenty-seven books to date. She was a Resident Writer for the International Writing Program, Iowa, USA; Charles Wallace Writer with the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK; delegate to the Feminist Book Fairs at Montreal and Amsterdam; Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. In her Tamil pen name “Kaaveri”, she has published a novel and collections of short stories. She taught English on the faculty of colleges, and in IIT – Delhi before she joined a multinational as a Senior Writer & Language Coordinator.For deta ils, please visit www.lakshmikannan.in
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