Autobiography of Adhyatma Ratna C N Guruswami Sarma, Kumbakonam -chapter 2 -The Dawn

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ADHYATMA RATNA KUMBAKONAM C N GURUSWAMI SARMA (1900-1968)

Chapter 2 

The Dawn

It is said that everything has a dawn or ought to have one. Whether the beginning is a portent exhibition of any object that we cognise or has something behind planted in the prior stages of evolution is a problem saints and seers have vainly sought to answer. Again whether the beginning we see is only a beginning or an evolved condition of something prior to it has troubled the honest bosom of many a thinker and yet one has been given a satisfactory answer. It even seems not impossible that the thing conceived and brought forth ought to have had many stages of evolution prior to it until we see a finished object now, which by itself may be only a further stage in that history or a link in the chain of evolution leading on to further stages of development until it becomes fully evolved and becomes perfect if such a stage is possible which will thereafter not grow at all and stay quiescent or get metamorphosed and begin another cycle of evolution provided the progress is all on advanced stages and there is no getting back by a process of involution. 

The dawn of the sunlight begins the day only for a particular region and the people that inhabit it at that time, but the sun is ever dawning at every place on every day. It seems only a temporary conception for the time being and for a certain definitive space and a definite group of sentiments who cognise it. It is always a dawn in the east and is almost as much a  truth to say that it always a setting and the terms are only comparative based on limited cognition. There can therefore be no beginning nor an end but a continuous cycle of beginnings and ends which narrowed down might begin and end at the same time. Such beginnings and ends being always synchronous and the being in between a stage from the start to the finish. when at every moment there is the double phenomenon of start and finish.

It seems strange therefore for anyone to say that one had his birth except to state that as a cognisable being imbued with life he came or or got dropped into this world out of design or by accident when certain planets were in certain positions relative to each other which marks a particular moment in the space of time, which again had progressed and is progressing relative to other dimensions. This point of time spotted out with the positions of other planets is supposed to show the birth time of any individual. It is note worthy that this is exactly what happens to a child when his birth time is noted and a nativity chart is drawn pinning this speck of an individual in relation to the very very large sized planets and stars in juxtaposition to the earth and the significant dot on this terra firma where the baby draws its first breath and gets out into the cosmos. Here again .people and pedants more with an eye to accuracy even trouble themselves to go behind the patent birth and get  to the point of time and get to the point of time when the spermatozoa fertilized the egg and developed life in a quiescent stage which after further development in the womb,comes out as a separate existence with an individuality all its own. The entombed life draws succor from the outside world. that is why we find in Hindu shastras that births of great beings are described more as a result of some combinations of planets conducive to birth of a great soul or rather the projection of the divine on this mundane screen with a form and  a name. It will be a truism to say that such combinations are looked forward to and they are taken advantage of by Rishis to usher forth into this world certain births for the apparent purpose of keeping the path of faltering humanity clean and cleared. Whatever it might be, it seems almost true that such moments are auspicious enough to be counted upon and treasured and such occasions celebrated for all times so every such similar combinations (though?-Ed) do not result in birth of great souls. The birth  after all is secondary and it is the importance of ushering in of necessary principles in guiding life .on this globe and of lives in other globes too perhaps that is greatly stressed. In juxtaposition to the births of a high order, the births of human beings of lower mental strata are also correlated only to the relative positions of stars and planets which almost pronounces the type and mental makeup of the life that comes into this tangible world of physical existence (1).  It can almost be safely predicted therefore that there are only two things that make up a human being , one the inner force and two the outer physical vehicle.These two factors are coexistent and are equally depending on one or the other for an individual existence which comes into a medley of circumstances seemingly made and kept ready for the necessary interactions leading to some results. Almost preplanned and with a designed purpose does an individual come for th into this world. An airy nothing gets its local habitation and a name and becomes cabinned, cribbed and confined. That airy nothing variously so called, first reconciles itself to its wonderful vehicle and begins to exhibit its sentient existence   through the limbs and mobile portions of the vehicle which itself is being nurtured and helped to stay on without rotting by its very nothing. Curiously paradoxical indeed ! One is not sure which supports which and to the credit of which one of those two things go all that is enjoyable in human activity and sensations. They are so interdependent and co existing that if the vehicle is damaged beyond repair for the force which was driving it from somewhere inside vanishes into conceivable nothing and when the spirit flees from an undamaged vehicle, the container rots and is returned to the earth being interred into it or reduced to the elements by being consumed by fire without the least chance of a re conglomeration into the wonderful edifice called the body. We know not what plan is behind this entrance and exit but in the interspace of time between both, what tales, what wonders, achievements , exhibitions of stupendous intellect . and mighty brains and admirable and lasting works adorning the face of the earth as though in gratitude are manifested. Life of an individual seems like a pendulum to oscillate in one direction for the nonce and probably come back to the starting point all unseen for the second oscillation. Yet one exclaims to one's self "Quo vadis ?"  even after years of conscious living on this globe.

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Editor's note: 
1.The chapter contains strong assertion about astrology and its influence on humans. My grandfather had a strong belief  in astrology. However, I doubt whether any of his sons believed in astrology. Two of them (my uncles) had mentioned to me that it is illogical to expect that thousands of persons born at a particular moment will have their lives charted in a similar way and hence astrology cannot be a science.  I will leave the readers to judge for themselves whether astrology is a science or a pseudo science..       
          

                               

எண்ணிக்கொண்டே இருந்தீரா? இறைவன் வருவானே?

எனக்கு தெரிந்து ஒரு நண்பர் -பாபு என்று வைத்துகொள்ளுங்களேன். வியாபாரம் கொஞ்சம் நொடிக்கவே ஆன்மீகம் , கோவில் என்று இறங்கினார். கோவில்களை சுற்றி வந்தும் மனத்துக்கு நிம்மதி இல்லை என்று சிலரிடம் வினவ, அவர்களும், யாராவது ஒரு குருவிடம் சென்று தீக்ஷை வாங்கிக்கொண்டு  ஜபம் செய்தால் நிச்சயமாக ஆன்மீகத்தில் முன்னேற்றம் ஏற்படும் என்று சொன்னா ர்கள்.   பாபுவும் தனக்கு தெரிந்த பேர்கள் எல்லோரையும் கலந்தாலோசித்து  ஒரு பெரியவரை தேர்வு செய்து அவர் விலாசத்தையும் வாங்கி ஒரு நா ள் அவரை அணுகினார்.
பெரியவர்  முருக பக்தர். "ஐயா, முருகனை வழி படுங்கள். நிச்சயமாக உங்களுக்கு அவன் அருள் உண்டு" என்று சொன்னார். பாபுவோ விடுவதாக இல்லை. எனக்கு இறைவனே நேரில் வர வேண்டும். அதற்கு என்ன செய்ய வேண்டும்  என்று சொல்லுங்கள் என்று ஒரே பிடிவாதம்.
பெரியவருக்கு தர்ம சங்கடம். "ஐயா, நான் எப்படி கியாரண்டி தர முடியும், நீங்கள் ஒன்று செய்யுங்கள். ஒரு நாள் ஒரு இருபதாயிரம் தடவையாவது முருகன் நாமத்தை சொல்லுங்கள். சாரதா தேவியார் சொல்லியிருக்கிறார். எவன் ஒருவன் இறைவன் பெயரை ஒரு நாளில் இருபதாயிரம் முறை சொல்கிறானோ அவனுக்கு இறைவன் நிச்சயமாக  வெளிப் படுவார் என்று.
அதை நானும் உறுதிப்படுத்துகிறேன். தயவு செய்து இதை செய்யுங்கள். என்றார்.
பாபு வுக்கு மிக்க மகிழ்ச்சி. ஒரு பிரச்சினை தீர்ந்தது என்று. பெரியவரை   வணங்கி எழுந்தார். பெரியவர் சொன்னார் "ஐயா, எண்ணிக்கொண்டே நாமம் சொல்லுங்கள். இது ரொம்ப முக்கியம் " . பாபுவுக்கு இது ஒரு பெரிய விஷயமாக தோன்றவில்லை..
வீட்டுக்கு வரும் வழியில் பெரிய ருத்ராக்ஷ ஜபமாலை வாங்கி 108 மணிகள் இருக்கின்றனவா என்று சரி  பார்த்துக்கொண்டார்.  மற்றபடி கணக்கு எழுத நோட் புக்கில் வரிசையாக காலம் போட்டுக்கொண்டார்.
எல்லாம் திட்டமாக வைத்துக்கொண்டு மறு நாள் காலை 5 மணிக்கு துவங்கினார். அவர் கணக்குப்படி 14 மணிநேரத்தில் 20,000 எண்ணிக்கை முடிய வேண்டும்.  அவர் கடையிலிருந்து இரண்டு ஆட்கள் அமர்ந்து   நோட்டு புத்தகங்களை சரி பார்த்து கூட்டிகொண்டே வந்தார்கள். . இரவு 8 மணியளவில் ஜபம் முடிந்தது. எல்லோரையும் வெளியே அனுப்பிய பின் முருகன் வரவுக்கு காத்திருந்தார். 9 மணி 10 மணி. நேரம் சென்ற வண்ணம் இருந்தது. தூக்கம் கேட்டது தான்  மிச்சம். முருகனையும் காணோம். ஒருவரையும் காணோம்.
அப்படியே தூங்கினார். கனவில் கூட முருகன் வரவில்லை. ஏதோ 1,2,3 என்று எண்கள்தான் சுற்றி சுற்றி வந்தன.
காலை எழுந்தவுடன் நண்பர்களிடம் தன்  ஏமாற்றத்தை மிக கோபத்துடன் பகிர்ந்து கொண்டார்,
"என்னங்க, பெரியவர் இப்படி பண்ணிட்டாரே' என்று வருத்தப்பட்டார்.
"நீங்க ஒரு நடை போய் அவரை பாத்து சொல்லிட்டு வாங்க" என்று எல்லோரும் சொல்லவே ஒரு வழி யாக    கிளம்பி போனார்.
பெரியவரை சந்தித்தவுடன் வெட்டு ஒண்ணு துண்டு ரெண்டு என்பது போல
"என்னங்க , இருபதாயிரம் முறை ஜபம் பண்ணு , முருகன் வருவான், " என்று சொன்னீங்க , பண்ணினேனே , முருகனும் வரல்லை, மயில் கூட  வரலை." என்று கொட்டிதீர்த்தார்.
பெரியவர் பொறுமையாக "அதென்ன தம்பி, அப்படி சொல்லிட்டீங்க, முருகன் ஏமாத்தமாட்டான். நீங்க இருபதாயிரம் முறை எப்படி சொன்னீங்க? " என்றார்.
பாபு "எனக்கு தெரியும். அதான் எல்லா ப்ரூபோட  வந்திருக்கிறேன். எண்ணிக்கிட்டே தானே சொல்ல சொன்னிங்க , இதோ பாருங்க, ருத்ராக்ஷ மாலை  -இது மட்டும் இரண்டாயிரம் ரூபாய்- நோட்டுக் குள்ளே பாருங்க- எண்ணிக்கை கரெக்டாருக்கும். நாங்க பரம்பரையா வியாபாரிங்க. கணக்கிலே தப்பிருக்காது.,பெரியவர் எல்லாவறையும் பார்த்தார். பிறகு எதையோ நினைத்துகொண்டதை ப்போல சிரிக்க ஆரம்பித்தார்.
"என்னங்க, சிரிக்கிறிங்க" பாபு வுக்கு ஒன்றும் விளங்கவில்லை.
பெரியவர் சொன்னார் "நீங்க ஜபத்தை எவ்வளவு தரம் சொல்றோம் எ ண்ணிக் கை  அதை எ ண்ணியிருக்கீங்க  சரியா.  நான் சொன்னது முருகனை மனசிலே எண்ணிக்கிட்டே அதாவது அவனையே நினைச்சுக்கிட்டு வாயாலே முருகா முருகா ன்னு சொல்லுங்க . எண்ணிக்கை கூட குறைச்சலா இருந்தா என்ன . காசா பணமா. இதுக்கு எதுக்கு ருத்ராக்ஷ மாலை, நோட்டு புஸ்தகம் , எல்லாம். என்னவோ வீட்டு ப் பாடம் செய்யற குழந்தை செய்யற  மாதிரி செஞ்சிட்டு முருகன் வரலை அப்படின்னு என்னட்ட வந்து சண்டை போடறிங்களே."

பெரியவர் முடிக்க கூட இல்லை. பாபு அவர் காலில் விழுந்தார்.
"ஐயா மன்னிக்கணும். முருகன் அருள், ஏதோ சில ஆயிரம்  ஜபம் பண்ணி வாங்கக்கூடியது என்று தவறாக  மனசிலே வாங்கிட்டது எ ன் தவறு  " என்று அவர் கண்களில் கண்ணீர் மல்க மன்னிப்பு கேட்டுக்கொண்டார்.

பாபு திருந்திவிடுவார். ஆனால் நம்மில் பலர் 21 வெள்ளி அருகம்புல், 108 தங்க துளசி, வாங்கி போட்டால் இறைவன் வருவான் என்று எதிர்பார்க்கிறோமே , நாம் திருந்துவோமோ ?  .. 

Will the office of the “Quality manager” become extinct in 2020?

Ten years back, the Quality manager seemed to be a person with an agenda and obviously the most wanted person in the board room. ISO and TS standards had got the attention of the management and tools and techniques like the six sigma were getting more and more popular. People wanted to ask for his views on new products and even recruitment. But, it appears that the dream run is over. The tide has turned now against his much admired status and position. Suddenly he seems to be a wanderer in the lobbies of corporate office and a person without purpose. For the Quality profesionals, this is a bad sign and once we think about this development, a feeling of discomfort and sadness creeps in. Has Quality lost its sheen? Has the "Quality manager" become a position without a future?
In a company where I consult, The Quality Manager has become a kind of "event manager". Whether it is the launch of the special issue of house magazine, or the function for recognising a supplier team, he is there, to do what the management wants. He accompanies the VIPs, presents the mementos, does the job of Master of ceremonies with ease. He says he is happy though I am afraid he might have almost forgotten the PDCA cycle. It is true that he is in the lime light and is present in all the photos published in the house journals but where has the "torch bearer of Quality” gone?
Some Quality managers have become coordinators of consultant driven initatives. They have put on the caps of procurement managers with a vengeance. They consider the Quality consultants as suppliers and lord over them for organising training sessions, haggle over prices and expenses, negotiate the scope of work and administer the programmes. But they are no more the zealous champions of the Quality movement in which once they were the vanguards.

The third group has become "in house" revenue generating resource. These Quality Managers do not serve the company but opt for outside assignments-assessments , coaching and training sessions for other group companies -or teaching in academic institutions and bring in valuable money for the company. They are respected because they earn revenue but so far as their contribution to Quality within their organisation is concerned, it has come to a naught.
If this is the situation, we start wondering where the profession is going. Do we need a "Quality manager" at all now? Coordinating with certification bodies and arranging various special programmes can be done by many others in the organisation and one does not need to study Deming or Juran for it.
Should the Quality Mangers not look at their jobs, their roles and introspect about the basics of their profession at least now? By running around to please all the people, have they not eroded some of the values of the profession ? Do we have some non-negotiable aspects of the profession and if so can they be inscribed in rock for us to follow?

As a Quality professional but not a serving manager in Quality, let me propose some basic ingredients to a value system for the Quality managers if they want to survive.


1. Serve the Customer : Never hide behind the QMS certificates when the customer comes charging. ISO system cannot be your shield in front of the customers. Please stand up for the customer and argue for him within the company.


2. Be a diagnostic expert: Enough of managing compliance audits and your memos on NCRs. Take up a course on Process Management and become an expert in diagnosis.
3. Be among the workers: The important constituency which served us was our workers. Be among them. Improve their outputs and serve to educate them in statistical skills.
4. Shun event management and decorative functions: Refuse the assignments of managing events and newsletters. Do not opt to have dinner with every one who visits your company. You will end up doing only that till the time company fires you for a kid from the nearby event management school.
5. Complement consultants' work: Do not treat consultants as suppliers. They have some knowledge and experience and you have the advantage of being an insider. Do not work at loggerheads and lose the game in front of everyone.
6. Read and Write: Take up a book and if you can, write one. This profession needs some intellectuals badly. Otherwise, it will end up as a lowly paid end of the road job for retirees and under performers.
I trust that this advice come in time and hope it is not too late and too near the day of extinction!!

Autobiography of Adhyatma Ratna Kumbakonam C N Guruswami Sarma Chapter 1

                                                         

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ADHYATMA RATNA  KUMBAKONAM C N GURUSWAMI SARMA  (1900-1968)

(as rewritten by his grandson)

CHAPTER 1

Shri C N GuruswamiSarma (my grandfather)  and
Shrimathi krishnammal Sarma (my grandmother)
Photo taken around 1965 in Kumbakonam

Introduction 

While I was rummaging through old papers and letters in the old trunk box in Kumbakonam last week , I came across the hand written transcript of my grandfather's (He was addressed by all of us in the household as Guruppa and in this book I may refer to him in that manner) autobiography.  I was aware of two files in which my grandfather had filed his  autobiography one in English and another in Tamil. Around 1977, I noticed that the English version was in a poor condition due to the poor quality of paper used (He might have written the autobiography in 1960s most probably between 1963 to 1967 during the period he had some free time). My father and myself had taken up the task of copying the autobiography in a different note book. We realised that time itself that my grandfather had not completed his  autobiography. Even the Tamil version which he titled "sadasivan padum Thuyar" was not completed when he passes away in 1968. However, We had copied the contents of the file in which English version was written and which covered incidents up to his schooling days and to my sincere belief, my grandfather had not written beyond this time of his life. Possibly he had written but at least the sheets were not filed. In any case even this note book has seen many summers and has started getting eaten by white ants. I thought I should now make a e copy of this book so that the autobiography which my grandfather had so meticulously written is not lost forever. I have started writing it in the blog form and request you to support me in this endeavour by reading it.

I will not shield my disappointment as the Editor that I am unable to give you a complete book. It is like Bharathiar's sinna sankaran kathai which though unarguably is among his best works was never completed.

There is one consolation.  It is probably his intent to write about the period which no one knows and leave the rest of the portion (after 1915) not documented so that the others who know about him can very well add their experiences with him. My request to all the elders in the family is to let me have the details about how my grandfather took the major decisions and how he steered through some critical situations in chronological order so that I will, by God's grace, try and fill up the void in the book.  Probably it will be an autobiography and a biography if you want to call that way.

I am not going to make any comment about the book nor try to convince the reader about the merits of reading it.  It will be impertinent for a person so small in stature and in age to comment about some one who towers over the rest of the people whom I know. 

All I request you is to read the book and reflect on the situations which played a part in creation of one of the finest persons by any standard.

Since I am writing in parts, please do have patience with me in case some chapters are delayed. 

I trust I have made a good beginning.

C P Chandrasekaran 
(Grandson of the writer)

Pune

22nd Nov 2013 CE

Vijaya year Karthigai month Panchami  thithi (45th remembrance day of my grandfather-Guruppa)

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                                          Section 1

                                       FOREWORD

Not with a view to record the incidents in an illustrious life, this sketch began; not also because of my life is anything marked by any achievement either peculiar or out of the way, or spectacular in any of its phases that this is attempted;nor even because that it has got any inkling to guide the lives of those  who chance to read it at sometime or other; nor even because that if published and circulated it might stand as a book of all ages.

The only intention therefore with which this life sketch is attempted is to show that the travails of the human mind after its cognisance of the world around it is something interesting as it portrays the repercussions of a toiling soul to the various circumstances, impacts with the outside things and persons and its developments and its developments and reactions. It is more in the nature of a study in psychology that this is attempted.

To my mind, it appears that any life history, be it that of a humble man or of a giant intellect looming large in the world's pageant must be interesting to a reader. Certainly there are and bound to be similarity of experiences, similarity in the feelings born out of identical chances in life, and the the similarity  in the fight that is put up.   After all, every human being is a bundle of sentiments seeking sensations, full of desires, cupidities and ambitions, so called successes and failures and disappointments and fulfillments, some ideals cherished and unaccomplished.

Desperate attempts are made to get the things which elude one's grasp and when one is thrown at bay he engages in artifices to gain the things sought after. World does not applaud such efforts. The falls and rises of one's fortunes does not count much in summing up any one's life incidents. The greater thing is to seek and correlate from the studies of different lives is to get a t the pattern after it had been worked out fully. Such a pattern seems to be almost a tapestry with cunning designs highly interesting, intricate  and varied, each pattern surprising us in unexpected lay outs.

Any life in this world is interesting to me and the more I see the life as it is, it looks more entrancing.For instance, there are struggles which are of the greatest intensity in the lives of ordinary people than in the lives of people who are fortunately place well in life purely out of  sheer accident. The problem has never been solved as to why some meet their deserts in life and others not. and how like dust we find apparently unworthy people floating prominently on the stream of life while the greater ones weighed on te scales of essential values sink and are not even heard of and remain unsung. Death sometimes is the only factor in those lives  which throws up on their remains some posthumous dust. It will be the experience of many that in the lives of "ordinary"people, we have topics for sagas and tragedies that touch one's heart. The premordeal passions of humanity have not changed cannot change from country to country or from time to time. It is because of the unchanging intensity in every being of such passions that we are humans. The same love that thwarted the young man to do feats of valour sometimes ending in unjustifiable murders moves also in the bosoms of the modern young man though now in a civilised age it is not so apparent or even  so straight forward. Though such intense human feelings that move men to both noble and ignoble actions, variously labelled as such in various ages as per the degrees of so called civilisations that exist then have now been very much camouflaged in modern times, they remain equally intense and fiery. It is therefore evident that the history of the life of any one human being is as much a saga as that of any other. In evaluating its didactic value, there might be and ought to be differences but as portrayals of the progress of pilgrims on this highway of life every life -be it ever so humble-is an interesting story. After all if one thinks of it, one can fashion one's life on that of another though those lives may put before his mental vision various ends which one might think it is desirable to reach and accomplish.  Very rarely do we find that such imitations of a great life, becoming as illustrious or as famous or as accomplished as that of life imitated.  One can only  attempt to live as  Buddha or Christ having read about their lives in detail and being imbued with the ardour which he found after reading their lives. Many have attempted to walk in their paths with a firmness or determination but none had been acclaimed as a Christ or Buddha.  Some unknown or even an unaccountable had made a Buddha or a Christ,not merely their mental fervour. Those are types which exist in the springs for action. We can rarely become so big. hence it is anybody can acclaim the truth that the life lived conscientiously as much of the glorious life bearing a cross, as that of Christ who showed the significance of the cross to the world. 
These thoughts  have impelled me to record the facts of how I awoke to the world and how I also having a place in contemporary history of the human race, however insignificant that place may be, have a story to unfold, not because of the ego in me to record my doing s or make myself immortal -but because I  pray that may be disillusionments may make my readers more bold in life and avoid the pitfalls which beset my path and in some moments sympathise with my struggles and tribulations. I wish them to laugh at my failures and weaknesses that made me miss the bus and see what all a sensitive soul thrown into the wilderness of the world had had to undergo and how it sinks almost wantonly into oblivion to escape public derision though at every moment dropping blood from the heart- the heart of Christ who so patiently bore the pain when nailed to the cross(1). A more militant Christ might have rewritten the history of the Roman Empire but then he would not be the Christ the meek, the humble and the holy. He would have gained the world but lost his soul and had he thought of his own glory or success his figure would have long ago been forgotten and his ashes would have -like those of Caesar's - been gathered to stop the hole in a castle wall. The life therefore of any human being has to be evaluated more on its failures in the combat of life and not on successes in the competitive world. Each mind had thought when cornered in peculiar situations such thoughts however humble the soul is worth preservation.      


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Editor's note:
1. Reference to Jesus Christ:
what could surprise a casual reader/an acquaintance with my grandfather -Guruppa to many of us- is the almost emotional reference to Christ in this chapter. Not only the reference but the tone is "truly Christian".  This emotional attachment to christ though he was a devout Hindu and an advaiti could be better understood if read in the context of his early association with a Christian family . In fact, he had a very marked reverence to Christ and even spoke about the travel of Christ after his crucification and the subsequent resurrection, to Kashmir where he was known as a yogi by name "Isa Krishna" with a belief that could hardly coexist with a Hindu's faith. He once referred to Pope as a true "Jagatguru" as he is virtually worshipped everywhere in the world by Catholics, of course. The derisive language used by the "Pundits" to indicate other religions and the followers (mlechas) was absent in Guruppa's real life conversations also.  

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