Ssstretched Toooo Faaaaar

Taking up a line of thought that occurred in connection with an earlier post.

The analogy between religion and medicine; gods and doctors.

* in both, 'normal situations , normal actions.'
-daily prayers, rituals woven into your daily routine;
-a healthy lifestyle, nutritious and timely food, good hygiene, good sleep...
In these, the parents, the family can have maximum influence.set the tone, set patterns that may last a lifetime.

* regular maintenance, upkeep, renewal,
-pujas, visits to temples etc.
-periodic check ups, preventive care

*what if I am healthy, don't need a God / doctor?
- familiarisation with God/ Dr. in peacetime helps when faced with sudden problems. You have a Dr. to go to and the Dr is already familiar with your systems, allergies, blood group, the depth of your pockets; can help you better in an emergency.
-easy to turn to God in times of crises..,if you are already in the habit.

* You have family gods, you have family Drs; you grow up with them, share a great comfort level. More of a personal than a professional relationship. fee-minimal, no fancy procedures, no appointments, no long queues.

*specialization and super specialization exist in both. Specialists Gods for your particular needs, specialist Drs. for yr. ailments. you spend a lot of time and money for a glimpse of these specialists

* over specialization in either becomes the butt of many a joke.
-like a visa Ganapathi. a cricket Ganapathi; (heard of them?)
- a different Dr for the right/ left eye.

*excess in both- more harm than good; obsession with religion, obsession with health.

* people shun you if wear either on your sleeve; if you flaunt your religion or your medical history.

* Both disciplines have more to do with the mind than they may be ready to acknowledge. most ailments psychological, many religious experiences, imagined. Faith plays a major role. Expts. with simple vitamin tablets given as strong medication have worked; similarly nonsense syllables passed on as mantra have been found to do their part.

*That makes both these fields a rich hunting ground for impostors; beware of poli samiyars and quacks!

*The dispensers of (hope / medicine as the case is ) do not bluntly tell their clients when the case is hopeless; that his problem has no solution or that he is on way up.; mercifully let them enjoy the bliss of ignorance.

*The need for both in direct proportion to your age!

*both generally spurned in good times, besought in desperate hours.

*Alternative systems available in both. Although you are well advised to follow your own, (it evolved in your climes, caters to your particular needs) it would be foolish not to learn from the others, not to incorporate what you can to your advantage. In both cases a healthy respect for the other systems would help solve most problems on earth!

should stop stretching before it snaps!

The theory of origin (of this blog)

The son calls up Mom and excitedly rattles away about--- well , anything. No response. 'Mummy, are you listening?' ' eh, Raju, you have a cold?'

I read Sundar's blogposts on various topics and say, 'ah, so he has an attack again, rather frequent, aren't they?'

As one who suffered no ends due to allergy attacks, and was fortunate to stumble upon a very simple but miraculous remedy, I wish to rush help. Hence I created this blog!

Believe it or not, all you do is -keep some sesame oil in your mouth for some 15 minutes and then spit and rinse off thoroughly- done.

Now, answers to the expected qs.

when-- preferably in the mornings, I do it first thing after brushing.

how much-- not too much , not too little, you will arrive at yr. optimum qty.

how long-- about 15 mins. again you can figure it out

till when-- the recommended period was at least 9 months to go through one round of every season. but I wld say 'why stop?' I started 3 yrs ago and am still on.

How does it work-- the root cause of most of our ailments is said to be oral and this strikes at the roots.

what does it cure-- it is claimed to be a panacea for most ills and I don't dispute the claim. It takes care of dental, respiratory, digestive problems, ulcer, joint pains, allergies-- never mind. Your body feels like a well oiled machine.

but I am allergic to sesame oil?--- so am I.But it didn't trouble me. sunflower oil is given as an alternative but to folks brought up on the 'kalyana gunangal' of sesame oil, equating it with sunflower oil wld. be sacrilege. If you are really scared, the option exists.

Take care not to swallow (by mistake) what you set out to get rid of.
If and when you take ill, follow your usual course of medication.
You can find details here.

The stumbling blocks

In my attempts at proselytizing the few I cared to, the harvest has been discouraging. reasons?

- It doesn't do much to one's ego. 'No, my problem is different you know, so many big doctors cldn't cure me.'

- the inability to understand that complex problems needn't always have complex solutions.

-'yuck, I can't have something messy in my mouth first thing in the morning. I don't like the smell, taste of oil, I have to have coffee first thing in the morning' etc, etc. I can only say you don't get the taste or smell, that pieces fall in place once you get started and that you are ready for coffee by the time coffee is ready for you!

- the earth will stop spinning if I don't speak for 15 minutes. Try and you will be surprised! and a bonus, you become a good mime artist and your family has some fun time.

- 'Yeah, I tried for a week, but----' heavy drop out rate.

To add some autobiographical authenticity, I had gone thro' a detailed allergy test and the subsequent process of immunization through the gradual introduction of the allergens. The glitch was you had to be in perfect health to receive the allergens and you had to receive the allergens to get perfect health! 'kalyanam aanaalthan paithiyam thelliyum, paithiyam thellinjalthan kalyanam aagum'. And what with every unsuspected food item, a whiff of dusty wind, a wardrobe cleaning session, a small wait at the traffic signal, a quick passing through a construction site -- anything waiting to pounce with an attack and the antibiotics biting dust one after another - it was a long drawn battle. In these last 3 yrs. now, my visits to the Dr. have been few and far between, the attacks scarce, very mild and easily beaten.

Now, the mission accomplished, 'piravipperum payan' being attained, (of the blog), I can go back to being myself, a bystander!

God of small beings

A recurrent topic on several blogs, especially of young parents is-- God, religion, rituals.... shd. we pass on to our kids.. in what form, how much, when, how etc.

Here is a point of view.

Most bloggers seem to have no quarrels with god or religion as such. they wish to give their children a God.Here are some benefits of having one.

• lends more meaning and purpose to life- that you are not an accident or a mistake but the all knowing one has chosen to make you.
• keeps one level headed in the highs and lows that life presents.
• helps digest the inexplicables and the unavoidables.
• even if the faith is not periodically nourished (with rituals) and is left dormant, it rejuvenates itself to firefight in times of crises.(God forbid!) why not keep the firefighting equipments in ready state?

Let's call the faith in a creator, your bond to Him etc the abstract , the essence: the rituals, observances, celebrations, the overt manifestations -- the concrete. or the software and the hardware!

• the basic premise is the two are complementary, not inimical. It is not either or or more of one, less of the other.
• Like in all spheres we proceed from the concrete to the abstract, it is easy and effective to begin with a cheerful, child friendly God, a pot bellied, elephant trunked Ganesha, a Krishna , whatever form prevalent in the family: applauding the little one with a 'good girl' for what is right and 'no, good girls don't do that' when wrong. (I am thinking of Lakhmi's little V). 'Swami manasukkulla irrukku'... Lakshmi, you very well know 'manasu' is not a ready to use free gift that comes with the child at birth, but a structure built over the years with inputs from all around.
• why God? Someone somewhere had said, even if there was no God, it wld be wise to create one. True, faith in God cld easily be used as the pivotal pole around which to firmly string the various virtues we wish to teach, instead of being left loose to get blown away with the first wind.
• Once someone said to Gandhiji that he found it difficult to accept a meat eating Rama. (the Guhan episode) Gandhiji's answer was,'create your own Rama ' one who doesn't eat meat! You may not appreciate a God that gets blinded by fury and throws around curses only to repent and soften them later, Gods that are jealous, fight etc. Numerous stories have been spun around Gods through the ages by people with different aptitudes that may not match yours, to highlight some point. We needn't be bothered by those. We can customise our God!
• Faith in God alright, but why the paraphernalia?
  - they are the floats you need to begin swimming with.
  - the concrete to peg the abstract,
  -the container that holds the perfume, without which it wld soon be gone.
  
• happy childhood associations with God, the goodies, the new clothes, the happy get togethers, gifts, colors, music, rangolis, decorations--lead to a happy association with God.
• as the child grows and matures, the floats will be put aside, the ground wheels taken off, the rockets fired off in stages! Rest assure yr. child is smart, he will grow to know the chaff from the grain just as you did.
• Just bec. you have attained a phd. yr. child can't begin at that level. he has to start from the alphabets all over again. maybe your superior kn. will help him go up faster. bec. you have a 'manasukkulla swami', can't transport it. she has to begin from 'pullaiar ummachhi'.
• If you abstain from influencing yr. child, somebody else will-- and it may not be to yr. liking..nature abhors vacuum. (a common argument, 'let them grow up and make their own choices')
• Is it necessary to wear poonool, mangal sutra?-- follow what you can, when you can. why deride them. If we question each of the things we do in the course of the day, hardly anything will pass the test.
• what of people who are ritualistic but harbour vices--- the two don't share a cause- effect link. they are not vice bec. they follow rituals. may be they wld have been worse w/o them! anyway they are keeping the structure intact: the spirit may inhabit it someday.

And finally, forget all this. yr. influence is much smaller than what you think. expect the unexpected; if you are lucky, surprises, not shocks!

Some one wiser may take it further.