SELF DISCOVERY – UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUALITY
“A spiritual journey is not so much a journey of discovery.
It’s a journey of recovery.
It’s a journey of uncovering your own inner nature”.
-Billy Corgan, (b.1967) American Musician& Song Writer
The human quotients may have started with the Intelligence Quotient, but have since evolved – right through to the most modern – The Genius Quotient[1]. While understanding one’s level of intelligence is essential, the other quotients identify other vital details that one should know about himself/herself, including how well one can handle emotions, deal with adversity, use a creative mindset, communicate with others, and learn new things.
In the mid-1990s, Daniel Goleman coined the term Spiritual Quotient (SQ) and Danah Zohar came up with the idea of spiritual intelligence.[2] SQ refers to a person’s ability to tap into their spiritual side, with some people being naturally more spiritually connected than others. The only person that I have come across in my life who is very much spiritually connected is my mother, Indirammal (b. 1927).
Since my very young age, I have seen my mother working all the time – mostly house-hold chores – from sweeping to mopping the floors, cooking to cleaning the vessels. Even while working, she will be reciting the verses (shlokas) praising the God and also found time to visit nearby temples. She did not have any expectation from any of us at any time. She had never spoken ill about anyone and kept every one – relative or friend or even a stranger, amused by her hospitality. In short, her dominant traits are devotion, duty and love.
Indira was born to a pious Sri Vaishnava couple Srinivasagopala Chakravarthy (1890-1955) and Chengamalam (1899-1971) as their seventh child (two elder brothers and four elder sisters) in a small village, Sosale, situated about 36 Kms from the city of Mysore. As there was no schooling facility in Sosale beyond higher primary school (today’s 7th Standard), Indira’s maternal grand-father established a house in Mysore for higher studies of his grand-sons in 1930. Thus, my grand-mother Chengamalam shifted to Mysore with her children when her eldest son was to be admitted to the high school. Srinivasagopalan remained in Sosale, as he was taking care of the village temple apart from the land that his family owned.
Indira was admitted to Maharani School in 1932 and got very much interested in her studies. She had natural affinity to music and learnt Carnatic vocal as well as violin for a few years. She also learnt from her mother lot of Sanskrit and Tamil verses (shlokas). However, by the time she turned thirteen, being part of a conservative society of that era, her parents stopped her from going to school and were looking for a suitable bridegroom. All her elder sisters were married by thirteen!
As Indira was born in Ashlesha[3] nakshatra, which is considered as not favourable for the would-be mother-in-law’s health, it almost took three years for her parents to find a suitable groom, whose mother was ready to accept Indira as daughter-in-law. Kaveriammal[4], mother of Venkatesan (1916-89), employed with Military Engineering Services at Bangalore, gave her consent for the marriage saying, ‘I have lived my life well. As I am already a widow, I am not really worried about myself; future of the young couple is more important’. Thus, Indira’s marriage with Venkatesan was performed in May 1943.
After her marriage Indira moved to her husband’s ancestral home at Bangalore. To her surprise she found there were six school-going children in the age group of 5 to 15 years, apart from her mother-in-law. They were Venkatesan’s only sister’s children, who were left in his care, as his brother-in-law was working in Dacca (Capital of present Bangladesh). Indira enjoyed their company and helped them in their studies apart from managing household chores. By 1946 the children left Bangalore to join their parents who had by then shifted to Patna.
Meanwhile in 1945 Indira delivered her first child, a daughter; the baby was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes by the time she turned one. The second child, another daughter, born in 1948 developed whooping cough within a year of birth. Both the daughters were born at her mother’s home, Mysore. It was in 1950 when she was handling the household chores and her two not so healthy children, I came into the world.
Since the time I remember, there were several challenges in the family that she had to handle, almost till I completed my graduation (1973). But, I had never seen my mother getting perturbed or worried, frustrated or disappointed. The only constant advice that she used to give us was ‘keep your mind (thought) clean as much as your body’. For a long time I used to wonder how a person could be like this; engaged fully in family life treating her daily chores as if service to God, not getting tired of entertaining all the immediate family members and constant flow of guests as well.
It was during late 1990s I found the answer when I happened to get hold of a copy of the book written in Kannada[5] at my eldest uncle’s home. My mother’s maternal grand-father Rangacharya (1868-1948) had compiled the contents for the book that tells about the lineage of his grand-father Karur Srinivasachar (1809-1875), a Sanskrit Scholar who was invited to settle down in Mysore around 1850 by then king Mummudi Krishnarajendra Wodeyar. Srinivasacharya was the 23rd descendant of Sudarshanacharya (1048-1109), one of the direct disciples of Ramanujacharya[6] (1017-1137).
There was another book[7] which my son Hari found in Sosale house about the lineage of Indira’s father. He was grand-son of Nallan Ramanuja Chakravarthy, who moved from Kalale (a village situated 29 Kms from Mysore) to Sosale in 1840s on the invitation of local chieftain. According to this book, even my maternal grand-father’s fore-fathers hailed from family of direct disciple of Ramanujacharya.
Thus, my mother had effortlessly imbibed the best from both her parents; from her father she learnt clarity of thought, resourcefulness, respect for prevailing practices and silence and from her mother she learnt devotion, honest discernment, hospitality and responsibility. As Dannah Zohar (Co-authour of Spiritual Intelligence-the Ultimate Intelligence) said Spiritual intelligence underlies the things we believe in, and the role our beliefs and values play in the actions that we take and the way we shape our lives.
By the time I understood fully my mother’s nature, I had already crossed fifty years. I wondered whether I could capture the essence of high standards of personal, family and social values as practised by her in the form of a book. Knowing the literary interests of my son Hari (b.1984) and nephew Naresh (b.1985), I discussed with them about my idea, though they were students of under-graduate programme then. To my good fortune, they readily agreed to take up the writing work. They worked on the project for nearly two years and the outcome was Roots and Wings, which was released during May 2005, on the occasion of my 25th Wedding anniversary. The book was well received in my family circles and subsequently got translated into Kannada and Hindi.
It is only by observing my mother over time that I understood whatever I do should be done with devotion and without any expectations, if I have to be happy.
[1] Catherine Mattiske,2021, Unlock Inner Genius, Tpc-The Performance Company
[2] Dannah Zohar, 1997, Rewiring the Corporate Brain, Berrett-Koehler Publishers
[3] Ashlesha (also known as Ayilyam in Tamil) is the 9th of 27 nakshatras (stars) of Hindu astrology.
[4] I had written about Kaveriammal, my paternal grand-mother in my earlier blog.
[5] Karur Srinivascharya Charithe, 1948, Edited by Asthana Vidwan Gopalacharya, Oriental Institute, Mysore
[6] Hindu Philosopher and Reformer, an exponent of Visishtadwaitha philosophy
[7] Srimad Thirumalai Nallan Chakravarthi Vaibhavam, 1904, Ashthana Vidwan Lakshmipuram Srinivasacharya
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October 14th, 2023 | Ravi 64