Madhwa's Teachings-Dos and don'ts of eclipse-superstition or traditional wisdom?

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Madhwa’s Teachings.

20-01-2010.

Dos and don’ts of eclipse--superstition or traditional wisdom?

 

Dear Member,

The annular eclipse on 16th January drew very large crowds all over the country; it was, perhaps, the largest crowd that was ever seen during an eclipse. Reporting on the unprecedented turn out of people in Mumbai, the Times of India correspondent wrote that Mumbaikars kept their date with the longest eclipse of the millennium. On the other hand, Bangaloreans, who had given a festive look to the city on Makar Sankrant just two days earlier, preferred to stay indoors due to superstition, wrote TNN and agencies. But a gentleman from Girgaum, an old friend of the writer, Mumbai, has a different tale to tell that speaks for quite a number of people for their absence in the crowds.

He is a retired teacher who believed in the supremacy of nature all his life. He was of the firm conviction that nature with its infinite energy managed the entire show of the universe with delicately balanced but highly complex and well defined laws which it revealed to the people who pursued science. Mother Nature, as he called, also revealed her beauty in her every manifestation and grandeur for her off-springs, the creation, to derive joy from. He travelled a lot during his youth and middle age, to appreciate nature’s beauty and also visited different places, vantage points to watch and appreciate celestial phenomena like eclipses in their full glory.

On the occasion of the last lunar eclipse on 31st December, 2009, however, he did not, as usual, venture out; instead, he remained at home. So much so that he was observed to be doing japa and parayana during the eclipse and he continued to do it till the end of the earth’s shadow-play on the moon, much to the surprise of his family and neighbours. When asked about the unusual behavior, he replied with the same sincerity, as he had shown before.

He had been a materialist, he admitted, and valued scientific opinion on every subject very highly. Scientific rationality had been the guiding principle of his life. He led a simple life. Yet, he carried a nagging feeling of uneasiness. Doctors termed it as psychological in nature, of mind’s own making. They suggested positive thinking which he did but without any success; the feeling continued to persist; it was his constant companion. Unable to overcome the disturbing feeling on his own, he sought advice from a scholar of the shastras, an old man of wisdom, he said.

The scholar had high regards for the gentleman for his knowledge, simplicity of life and conviction. He said that the problem although psychological in nature as per the medical opinion, might be due to other reasons, like prolonged exposure to the harmful ecliptic atmosphere. Scientific community is of the opinion that the sun’s rays damage the eyes, if the eclipse is looked at without prescribed protective device. It seems to be silent on their effect on other things like the atmosphere and the human body. It seems to be a short-sighted view that the rays affect only the eyes and not the body. Perhaps they might have marginal effect and therefore not taken seriously. However they might affect, if one exposes his body for longer times, he opined. The scholar further pointed out that as per the shastras the negative energies released during the eclipse tend to increase the rajas and tamas qualities in humans and reduce satvik nature perceptibly.

Our ancestors had studied the effects of eclipses on the life as a whole and prescribed many restrictions and precautions to be taken; but many of the restrictions are nowadays branded as superstitions. Eclipses are not totally bad; they provide for a very positive side too. Japa and parayana performed during eclipse fetch merit in geometrical proportions, he said. He asked the teacher to meditate on the matter sitting at a quiet place; he would find an answer to the problem, he suggested. He also asked him to do japa.

On the very same day, the teacher went to the nearby sea shore in the evening and sitting at a quiet place, away from the crowds, he turned inward to seek answer to the problem. The slanting rays of the crimson sun, the breeze from the vast water front and the deep gurgle-like sound of the sea greatly helped him reach the quiet zone deep within. He experienced a soothing calmness he had never experienced before, and beneath it lay the uneasiness that, he felt, beckoned him to probe. He realized that the earlier feeling of uneasiness was the yearning of the soul. He also vaguely became aware of a subtler nature, metaphysical plane and a far more superior force that managed the gigantic show of the universe through the metaphysical and physical natures.

It was the stage that marked the end of physics and the beginning of metaphysics. The sages who had realized this truth had, among other things, suggested the best periods like the Brahma muhurta and ecliptic period to reach this stage through japa and parayana that ultimately leads one to the Dweller within, he explained.

The teacher said he remained indoors, like many others, during the next solar eclipse also and, as he put it, “not because of superstition but to make the most of a rare opportunity to reach the self within”. Needless to add, this “delving within” is already a daily ritual with him.

All dos and don’ts are not superstition.

With best regards,

Ramachandra Tammannacharya Gutti.

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