In my previous episode 7, I covered five out of nine Navarasas and in episode 8 covered the Bhayarasa in details. There has been lots of response and discussions about this topic and many have asked me where the balance rasas are? Due to my busy schedules I have been inactive in my blogging department for a while and felt missing my contacts with you. Here are my thoughts on balance rasas.
Recap:
The nine Rasa’s are:
1. Hasya – Humour
2. Adbudha – Wonderment
3. Shringara – Romance (very approximate translation)
4. Raudra - Anger
5. Karuna – Compassion
6. Veera – Valor (Fearlessness)
7. Bhaya (Fear)
8. Bibhatsa – Disgust
9. Shanta – Peace
Rasa is the manifestation of our feelings at different situations in our daily life; another words they are the state of our being which is dynamic and in a state of a flux all the time. I would say they are the involuntary response of our mind which is not under our control. All rasas are like different taste of food some are liked and some are not. If the diversity in taste has not been there the food will not be palatable. Similarly if different rasas don’t manifest we are not a balanced personality and if few rasas are too dominant then we become a split personality; for example if Bhaya rasa is dominant we are withdrawn from the society and not noticed. If our Hasya rasa is dominant then people think that we are not serious and so on. Now I am presenting the balance Rasas for your study.
Bibhasta Rasa:
The nearest English translation for Bibhasta is “Disgust” a feeling of dislike. The dictionary meaning of disgust is distaste, aversion, hatred, antipathy etc. We often say we are disgusted with ………; something we hate, may be food or a person or a situation. Let us examine why there is “like” and “dislike” present? For everything Nature created an opposite; for light-darkness, for white-black, happiness-sorrow, rich-poor, sweet-sour and so on. In Zen they say it is the two sides of the same stick or two sides of the same coin.
Let us examine scientifically why we need pair of opposites. Light cannot be defined if the darkness is not present! White cannot be defined if black is not present; rich cannot be defined if poor is not present. In other words white depends on black and light depends on darkness to be defined. Just imagine all human beings are looking alike then you cannot define white and black race or beauty and ugly. Beauty depends on ugly to be defined. Vedic scriptures say that an enlightened person transcends the pair of opposites. Ramakrishna Paramahansa took gold coins and dropped along with mud in the Yamuna River! For a materialistic man it looks like madness; whereas for an enlightened soul we are the mad people running behind wealth and perennially miserable.
When the Bibhasta rasa is dominant we hate a situation or a food or a person and trying to run away from it. Recognizing the fact there are certain situation from which we cannot run away as we don’t like them; it could be taking a bitter medicine or dealing with your nagging boss or wife/husband or taking a marketing call in your cell and so on. Whenever you are dominant with the attack of Bibhasta rasa, please remember the pair of opposite nature has created and try to move in the scale of enlightenment accepting the situation as a pair of opposite. The World is full of hatred feeling due to colour of the skin, race, religion, sect and so on. Please remember there is no hatred feeling among the animal kingdom and they live in perfect harmony. Bibhasta is a form of hatred feeling which has negative response in our state of being and health and let us learn to come out of it soon.
Tip-1:
Remember all that is good for your health are “Tasteless” or “Bitter” – Karela is bitter but extremely good for health and Bibhasta is also like that. When you are “disgusted” about something, remember there is an opportunity for growth. When I was disgusted with my service career, I founded my organization SSA Business Solutions (P) Ltd. When I was disgusted with my puny stature I commenced body building. All feeling of disgust carries a seed of equivalent benefit in it. If you are mad you will through that seed; if you are wise you will be curious to put the seed in the ground and pour water to reap its fruits later.
Tip-2:
Beware of a continuous feeling of disgust which is a sign of lack of alignment with the nature. Sometime you may be disgusted with life as a whole as nothing seems to be interesting. This is a sign of depression which is a common disease haunting the modern human beings. You start looking for “High” through indulgence in food, sex and drug at last. If you experience a prolonged sign of “Bibhasta” either consult a psychiatric or pursue spiritual masters.
Veera Rasa:
The Veera Rasa is “Fearlessness”, “Courage”, and “Valour”, “Prowess” etc. Veera Rasa is opposite of “Bhayarasa”; another words it is an antidote for Bhaya (Fear). Courage helps you to move forward in any given situation. One of the major psychological blocks is “Fear of Failure” which always intimidates us from exploring unknown domains; be it a corporate presentation or public speaking or trying something which is not complying with the traditional known methods. We find some of us “Dare devils” and many are “Darpok” (Hindi). We have hesitation in everything as the Veera rasa is almost non-functional. By design or default we are inhibitive. The root cause of our lack of courage is due our childhood conditioning where we faced many put-downs by the parents, teachers and society. Our social system is founded on obedience which stems from our epics where Lord Rama has to accept an unjust verdict from his parents. The western society is founded on “Liberty” and “Standing up for your rights”. In the absence of Veera rasa we miss many opportunities to be noticed.
Tip-1:
When the courage is lacking or you are inhibited by fear, please remind yourself you are a worthy person and you have brilliant idea to share. Let not the fears of ridicule grip you; no idea is a silly idea; Accepting or rejecting your suggestion is their problem. Be brave to express.
Tip-2:
One of the characteristics of achievers is taking risk. Not trying something big gives you a notional feeling of comfort. The only way you can avoid making mistake is “not trying anything unknown”. After all life is a game in which winning and losing both have no meaning at the end of your life. There are two paths for your rest of your live; one is “Average” and another is “Memorable”; the later one is less treaded and the former is treaded by many – the beaten path. Always Choose the “Road less travelled”.
See you soon with Shanta Rasa
May Lord bless you with balanced Rasas
Love
NC
Amazing Post NC! Thank You!
ReplyDeleteGood Sunday even reading & my take aways are ......
ReplyDelete"When I was disgusted with my service career, I founded my organization ...."
" ......depression which is a common disease haunting the modern human beings"
".....no idea is a silly idea"
"Always Choose the “Road less travelled”.
Excellent effort NC & Baba be with you always.
Om Shanti & Win Win regards
Ramgopal CANCHERLA
Dear Ram
ReplyDeleteHappy to know that you read my post and also felt it carried some wisdom. Your complimentary words are the fuel that keeps me flowing. Thank you for your efforts.
Love
NC
This is about Bhibhatsa
ReplyDeleteI learn Yoga from a boy who is hailing from a fisherman's community and he is younger than half of my age.
He was asking me why medicines especially Indian native medicines are always bitter ?
I told him the answer that being bitter you would like to stop it at the earliest opportunity and hence try to consume it for shortest duration possible with all attention and regularity and see that your health comes back to normalcy.
He okeyed but added that whenver we take such tastes such as sweet or spicy, we relish it and hence we may not know how we chewed them . We may talk to somebody while eating. Some time without giving any attention to what we eat or drink we may do other things like watching a TV or reading or talking while we may consume the food what we like most. In fact as per Satguru Jakki Vasudev, our ancient way of eating suggests that we should totally concentrate while eating and do nothing else. Then only it adds to our health in a useful way. That was our table manners; sorry, our anceints used to sit on the ground and eat and hence call it eating manners.
Now let us consider how we take medicine. We take a spoon of syrup or tablet or potions carefully measured and put it in our deep mouth or throat and swallow and we don't talk or watch TV or attend calls during this short duration. many times, we even massage our chest after swallowing. We give our full attention to what we administer to our system while taking medicine. Had it been a sweet or spicy medicine, we would be swallowing carelessly. As per our ancient belief we take medicines without splitting out attention anyother thing and this must give a good health to us as per philosophy. And hence nature provides all good medicines in such a bitter taste so that we give due attention to them while we consume.
One more thing I thought about Bhibahtsa. generally we need reason to dislike something while without any reason we may like many things.
A thing or person we start disliking at the first instant. But later due to familiarity we stop disliking . Let us consider a a mrriage where everybody is not fortunate to love before marriage. Many a times, it happens an arranged marrriage. Nowadays children used to ask the parents how could they accept an arranged marraige. They used to tell that their parents okeyed it and hence got married. In many cases, it happen in India. But all of them after their 60th or 70th year when they look back they don't have any regret. How it happens ?. The first meeting with stranger may not be all that pleasant . but during the course of our living, we forget all the aspects we did not like in them and start liking them for all the positive aspects which everybody is having aplenty.
Life's journey is to invent the other person whom you marry lifelong. You dig so many wonders in the other person. Look is only a first impression. There are a lot of other aspects of a person which you can understand only after moving with them. This is the secret of Indian marriages . Consider our ancestors like great grand parents and their parents and our own parents. They never thought of divorce in their life. How could it all happen? Bhibahtsa is only a short lived sensation., It disappears after some time.
P S Hariharan
harihaan_ps@yahoo.com
09282147044
This is about Veera.
ReplyDeleteVeera is considered as noble virtue . The Word 'Veera ' is interpreted as "One's courage to face a situation without any fear or favour " and act according to one's own conscience without bothering for the consequnce namely something like 'what would happen to me if I disclose the truth' or 'what would happen if I oppose the propsal where every other person agree with that etc., etc.,.'.
Lord Rama never anticipated the throne and as Kamba , the Tamil Poet who composed 'KambaRamayana that Rama was not very delighted when he was offered the throne nor felt deprived when he was banished to go to forest and alternately offered the kingdom to his loveable brother Barath. It was the custom prevailing that era that eldest of sons should get the throne. It was against the custom. But not against the will of Sri Rama. He never pined for the power. Hence it can not be equated to lack of will power or lack of Veera due to his utmost obedience to elders.
For that matter he was more delighted to go to forest rather than clinging to throne where more mundane responsibilities may bind him from his worldly responsibilities.
On the Contrary, When Sita offers herself to accompany Rama, he refuses her initially quoting the reasons that the forest life may offer more dangerous situations like wild animals, rakshasas, severe extreme weather conditions, terrain difficulties etc., . Then Sita wonders whether Her father married her to a man or woman who would bother about the difficulties in maintaining his wife in difficult circumstances. This makes Rama to accept her in his journey of forest otherwise, he would fall in her estimation.
When a man is questioned about his Veera, he gets into complex situation. It depends upon his personal estimation of his courage or valour to take decisions.
Same Sita wonders about her husband's Veera when He faces single handedly ten thousand Rakshasas like Kara and Dhushana in dandakaranya and He kills all the demons. with his Kothanda.
Woman always expects a man to be brave and prove it often.
In the present day, if all men have to prove their bravery prior to marriage like olden days' swayamvara, most of us would remain bachelors.
Our lack of courage exhibits especially when society around us display violence in some form or other.
In our niehburhood, something happens to a woman or a child and we are unable to prevent it watching it helplessly. The so called gentlemanliness keep our face turn away and feel as if nothing has happened. We don't muster courage to question the guilty when a girl is teased in crowded train or a child is made to do unacceptable labour in a shop.
Only when we are able to stand upto the injustice not only to us, for the fellow beings, we can call ourselves endowed with Veera.
P S Hariharan
It really ties well the journey from "Disgusting" to "Success".
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! And I Agree!
I would like to have a memorable life by taking the unbeaten path. Like the part which explains the theory of Nature to create opposites
ReplyDeleteThank you Roseann for reading and commenting on this post. You are always one of those who encouraged me to share my learnings. God bless you.
ReplyDelete