Chennai Life 360
FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
Editorial Desk
Rise above LABELS! In many ways, it is apt that Chennai is the launching pad for Chennai LIFE 360*. After all, history shows that Chennai has been at the forefront many progressive forces of the Spirit that continue to ring positively today! In this inaugural issue, we who form the editorial team of Chennai LIFE 360* would like to make our mission clear: We aim to distil wisdom from every stream of thought (whether religious or philosophical or not!) without giving it any label other than the labels of ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Compassion’. We believe that every religion’s core values aim to unite humanity. In an age when communalism, factionalism, fundamentalism and strife induced directly from and merely because human beings were born into a particular religion, we, the editorial team, believe the time has come, quite simply, to rise above labels such as Christians, Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs. Be proud of your customs and culture, but remember those customs and culture must serve as stepping stones to embracing other cultures and other viewpoints as being equally valid in the goal toward unity. And unity (oneness) is the final solution for all of today’s problems. If you are one with the one you wish to steal from, how can you steal? Can you steal from yourself? If you are one with the other, there is no ‘other’ to hate.
Abhaya Raj Joshi Jairam Seshadri Jayeetha Pakrashi Jyothi Sriram Kajal Sabherwal Pretika Khanna Sarath Chandra Sowmya S Follow Life 360* on: Tumblr http://magazineuniverse.tumblr.com/ Facebook
Every living, sentient being is infused with a Spirit that is the Life Force. When we die that Spirit leaves us or we would cling to the dead bodies of those who have departed. It is that Spirit that is omnipresent, even in the air that we breathe. Like radio waves that are caught by transistors, we human beings are transistors of that Spirit. We need to tune ourselves to that Spirit.
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And if that same Spirit that is within you, is within everyone else, despite you being of a different gender, too tall for that glass ceiling, despite you being of a different religion that requires you to wear a yarmuckle or a turban, despite you being of a different profession that requires you to count beans, why not shed these labels, even if only in your solitude, and pick up Chennai LIFE 360 once a week to replenish that soul we call the Universal Spirit? In this inaugural issue we begin our movement (no less!) by bringing to you several places of worship of that Spirit in different ways. We also have for you a feature on the rationale of chanting mantras, a form of prayer that is universal in all religions. And to reaffirm our theme of universalism, we peek into the philosophy of Theosophy. And more! The thunder is yours! Enjoy! And if you care to join the movement write to us at ChennaiLIFE360@Life.com
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The Editorial Team
Chennai Life 360
CO N T E N T S
A FEAST FOR THE HEART AND MIND!
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The Theosophical Society
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Mantras: Senseless
Sense or Sensible Nonsense Page?
8-9 10 11
Near News
Jewish Jottings Full Circle 3
Cover Page
Photography: Amit Banerjee
Editing: Abhaya Raj Joshi Model: Piyush Rai
Photo: Arindam Majumder
The Theosophical Society- a shrine to Their motto: There is no religion higher t
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Chennai Life 360
Universalism
than truth
140 years have passed with the founding of the Theosophical Society in Adyar. Yet the principles and the message still rings true!
- Jyothi Sriram and Jayeeta Pakrasi
The Theosophical Society is an international organization whose objective is Universal brotherhood without distinction. Formed in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel, Olcott, William, Quan Judge. The founders arrived in Madras and bought 250 acres of land, then known as The Huddleston Gardens, at the price of Rs 8500. It is now more famous as Adyar, at the heart of the Chennai city. The entire estate is built near the southern bank of the Adyar river. As one gets inside the place, one would find five well sculpted trilithons, which are centuries old and were brought from a ruined temple, erected at selected spots in the estate by Colonel Olcott.
“Human and nature are one� The belief behind the formation of this society is that life and its two basic diversified forms, human and nature; are One. The people at the theosophical society are united by a common purpose: truth and finding out the meaning and purpose of existence. They do this through study, reflection, self responsibility and service. The institute remains open for a period of three months from November to January. The society runs several courses on the study of religion, life, existence and nature. Several aspirants from all over the world come to study here. 5
Mantras: Senseless Sense or Sensible Nonsense? Sound Vibrations can alter the physics of reality. If the vibrations emanate from the basis of good and holy thought, alteration of the physics of reality is altogether positive, writes Jairam Seshadri. Mantras! Invocations, in a language, often quite alien! Mantras, chanted in yoga classes or by monks in saffron robes in remote hill-swathed monasteries. The words tumble out, sounding like pebbles slowly rolling in a tin canand are often dismissed out of hand. A Zen Koan posed in the form of a question and answer goes like this: Question: ‘Who uttered the Buddha’s name?’ Answer: The Buddha uttered the Buddha’s name. Everyone is a potential Buddha; everyone - irrespective of their background and religion (or lack thereof) - can attain to and experience higher states of ‘Buddhahood’.
reflect the effect of sound vibrations (caused by chanting mantras) on matter. One of these is the physics experiment (memories of high school surely floods our consciousness) that establishes the connection between sound waves and physical matter and the ability of sound waves to cause alterations in the physical world. It involves two tuning-forks of the same note or frequency; vibrating one tuning-fork (striking it on the table) and holding it vertically by the stem next to the other, non-vibrating tuning-fork (also held vertically) will cause the non-vibrating fork to begin vibrating magically The sound waves from the vibrating tuning fork activate elements in the non-vibrating tuning fork causing it to vibrate. This is known as ‘sympathetic resonance’ in Physics.
Mantras are the route to such higher states. At the outset, chanting mantras is not exclusive to any one religion. The Sufi chants, the call of the muezzin in Islam, praying the Rosary in Christianity, cantillation in Judaism, are mantras that span the spectrum of religions. Is there a rationale behind chanting of mantras? In this age of seeking a plausible reason especially by those who are educated, would spreading the rationale, if any, make chanting mantras more mainstream? This article aims to look at the chanting of mantras through the lenses of reason and is the first in a series of articles on the subject. There are several scientific experiments conducted on the effect of sound and its vibrations that shed reason on the benefits of chanting mantras.Some of the works and their results are highlighted here to A Buddhist monk with prayer beads Photo: Wikipedia
Question:
Sound waves – something we cannot see, feel, touch, causes a physical change to occur without physical contact.
Who uttered the Buddha’s name?’
In 1967, Hans Jenny, a Swiss doctor, placed fine sand on sensitive membranes which were made to vibrate through the effect of human voice.
Answer:
With pleasing sounds, such as the music of Mozart, there appeared pleasing shapes and patterns.
The Buddha uttered the Buddha’s name.
Jenny made use of an invention of his own, the tonoscope, for these experiments and established that words and symbols have the power to influence and transform physical reality.
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Another interesting phenomenon in his scientific experiments was that when he took a vibrating plate with liquid and tilted it, the liquid did not run off the plate and yield to gravitational influence, but stayed on the plate and continued to develop new shapes. This, according to Jenny, was the effect of anti-gravitational qualities, created by vibrations. Science has proven that the pull of gravity on our bodies ages us. It is therefore reasonable to extrapolate that mantras through their vibrations may slow down the aging process. Jenny went on to state that everything we see in the physical and phenomenal world is the result of vibrations even going so far as to state that “biological evolution was a result of vibrations, and that the nature of the vibrations, determined the ultimate outcome. Tulsi Prayer beads Photo: Wikipedia
“Every human cell, according to him, had its own frequency and that a number of cells created a new frequency in harmony with the rest...�
reveal that the mind in a state or meditation is more calm than when asleep. Calm rivers alone make their riverbeds visible.
Vibrations that are set in motion when chanting mantras produce a resonance that re-aligns our nervous system. The nerves of the human body are subtle, extremely fragile, delicate. They collectively constitute our mental make-up. Positive vibrations from mantras attune us to states of calmness.
A calm mind, like a placid river reveals solutions to problems and puts the world in perspective.
Countless studies have been performed scanning brains or individuals who are chanting and meditating. The scans
Till then Happy Chanting in whatever way path you have chosen!
In coming issues we will delve into what higher states mean and why these so called higher states are worth attaining to through the regular chanting of mantras.
Vibrating one tuning-fork (striking it on the table) and holding it vertically by the stem next to the other, non-vibrating tuning-fork (also held vertically) will cause the non-vibrating fork to begin vibrating magically.
A Christian rosary Photo: Wikipedia
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ON A HOLY TRAIL
Chennai Life 360
Our correspondents Kajal Sabherwal and Pretika Khanna take you to two of the oldest religious sanctums of the city.
L to R (Clockwise): The main mosque (top left), Inscriptions in the main hall (Top right), Minaret with the anoouncement speaker that calls for daily prayer (Bottom right) and outside the main hall where the thousand lights used to burn (Bottom left) Photos: Kajal Sabherwal and Pretika Khanna
Story of the Thousand Lamps The thousand lights mosque, in Anna Salai in Chennai is one of the largest in the country and is known to be a place of pilgrimage for Muslims. Built by nawab umdat-ul umrah in 1810, there is an interesting story behind the name. It is said that 1000 lamps needed to be lit in order to illuminate the assembly hall and from this, it derived its name. However, there are others of the belief that the lights were provided by the Indian National Congress to mark their first visit to the city of Madras. Speaking of architecture, the mosque is a
medieval architectural style building with multi domes and spearing minarets. Before redesigning the place as a mosque, it was a shrine for a long time. Holy quotations from the Quran have been inscribed on the walls of the mosque. The hall was built around 1810 by a scion of Wallajah family, which owned much property of the place in the area – for the shia Muslims to assemble during moharram. A mosque was added to the hall in the same five acre property in 1981 with two tall minarets and five
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inward curving domes depicting modern west Asian influence. It has a exhilarating structure and the average height of the minarets is about 64 feet above the ground. There is a main hall where the men offer their prayers and a separate room for women. There are two rooms on the second floor which are known as Bargah. Being a famous place for worship among Muslims in south India, the thousand lights mosque is still a scene of religious activity during Moharram.
Chennai Life 360
The Church that Awaits its Followers
T
he Armenian Church in Chennai is one of the oldest churches in India. This church was built in 1712 and reconstructed in 1772. The church is dedicated to Mother Mary. The church is located on the Armenian Street in Parry in Chennai. The church has six distinctive bells that have been manufactured in London. They are now 300 years old. t was in the early 17th century that Armenian traders arrived in Chennai from Iran. The traders who came to India were not from Armenia but were from Iran and Persia. Around the 1950’s, they left the city and migrated mostly to Calcutta (now Kolkata). The reasons for this include the coming in of British colonisers, internal feuds and rising taxes on their properties. The Armenian Church Committee in Calcutta is the one that still maintain the church. The church is now merely a heritage site and has almost no worshippers anymore. The only time when the church conducts service is when a group of Armenians from Kolkata travel to Chennai. During these trips, a priest accompanies them as well. These events are open to all. Mr. Trevor Alexander, is the caretaker of the church. He opens the gates of this beau-
Photos: Rohit James
tiful sanctum between 9 am to 2:30 pm. It is only between this that visitors are allowed to witness the beauty of this monument. He has been the caretaker of this church since the last caretaker retired a decade ago. “I ring the bells every Sunday at 9:30 and everyday I light a candle in the church, so that the church is still alive” says Mr. Alexander. There are less than a handful of Armenians in Chennai now. In fact, the number is as low as two. They too have moved to Chennai from Iran for educational purposes. Hence, there have been no meetings in the church for the last 15 years. Last year, the church celebrated 300 years of the Azdarar. The Azdarar was the first newspaper to be published by an Armenian in 1794 from Chennai. The grave of the publisher is also in this church. Though Chennai was once a flourishing residence for Armenians,
L to R (Clockwise): The Armenian Church built in 1712 (Left), The main minaret that also houses the vinatge bells (Top right), An aerial view of the church (Right and centre), A replica of the Azdarar. The first newspaper to be published by an Armenian (Bottom).
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there are now no local Armenians left. Kolkata has the most number of Armenians in the country. The caretaker, Mr Trevor Alexander jokes, “There are no Armenians left in this city. That’s why they wanted me to become the caretaker even though I’m not Armenian.” Armenians were traditionally orthodox christians but today, this church is merely a tourist destination.
Chennai Life 360
INTERSECTION
Jewish jottings
An over-whelming passion for exploring a religion can manifest in myriad ways. In S.N.Thyagarajan’s case, it manifested through the written word. As S. N. Thyagarajan, 24, answers the phone call after his dinner, his voice is neither elevated nor tensed, but carefully measured. However, his delight becomes evident when the conversation turns to Judaism, the subject of his debut book, which will be self-published early next year. He clearly states that the book is not about the religious philosophies that Judaism seeks to preach, but a memoir of sorts. In an interview with Sowmya.S, Thyagarajan, a native of Coimbatore and an advocate at the District Court, Coimbatore, talks about the enriching experience of exploring Judaism, of the need to document this experience and on finding a common ground between Judaism and Hinduism. Excerpts from the interview...
In 2007, I saw Jeremy Piven, a British Jewish actor, in National Geographic (Channel). He was touring India and visited the Paradesi Jewish Synagogue in Cochin, Kerala. I felt attracted to a civilization that is now more or less lost in India. When you find out that such a religion exists in your country, the first thing that you do is to find out what they have left for you. So, I first visited the Jewish synagogues in India. That’s when my exploration began. *What made this exploration unique and worthy of being documented?
PHOTO: S.N.THYAGARAJAN
*Hailing from a conservative Tamil Brahmin family, how did you become interested in Judaism?
S.N.Thyagarajan, whose debut book will document Judaism in India.
The Jews have been living in India for the past 2600 years. It is the story of a community, which is perceived as foreign, by Indians. They might have come from a different country, but they are Indian at heart. Their struggle to establish an identity is very evident. There are no written records of their arrival or the Jewish way of life. They are like an extinct species, as many of them have been leaving for Israel. I want to document them before the civilization disappears completely. Also, they have lived here for so long and there must have been influences of our culture (on theirs). My idea is to explore them and see if there is a meeting point between the two cultures.
Judaism does not believe in idol worship. They worship the Torah and recite slokas from their holy book, which is basically worshipping knowledge. It may be possible that they wanted to respect knowledge and interpreted the Torah as the Lord, but, in a way, it is respecting the knowledge of someone. Arya Samaj is more or less the same; it’s against idol worship. It also believes in Vedas and Knowledge and that’s basically what Judaism does. Be it Hinduism, Christianity or Judaism: in all of them, the idea of God is to teach you to lead a good life. That’s evident in Bhagavad Gita and Torah’s proses. But, there is a lack of understanding (of this concept) and we have not interpreted it properly. People are trying to cash in on this (ignorance) everywhere: be it at temples or at the Wall of Jerusalem. Even if you download a single (religious) app on your mobile phone, you get a million requests to donate to them. They attempt to show you (the path to) peace (through religion), which just dilutes the whole concept.
THE TORAH
PHOTO: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Torah2.jpg#filelinks
*Through your exploration, did you find a common ground between Judaism and the Hindu way of life?
The scroll containing Torah’s proses, which is the Holy Book for Jews across the world.
The Torah, or Jewish Written Law, consists of the five books of the Hebrew Bible - known more commonly to non-Jews as the "Old Testament" - that were given by G-d to Moses on Mount Sinai and include within them all of the biblical laws of Judaism. The Torah is also known as the Chumash, Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. The word "Torah" has multiple meanings including: A scroll made from kosher animal parchment, with the entire text of the Five Books of Moses written on it; the text of the Five Books of Moses, written in any format; and, the term "Torah" can mean the entire corpus of Jewish law. This includes the Written and the Oral Law. Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Written_Law.html
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”
FULL CIRCLE
There is only one truth, only men describe it in different ways.
- Rig Veda
In Search of Roots and Identity : Yaadhum Yaadhum, a documentary by S, Anwar is a journey to trace Tamil Muslim roots. The idea of the film emerged from a paper S. Anwar presented, “Tamil Muslims: The Untold story” at a national seminar. Yaadhum which means ‘all’ or ‘everything’ depicts the close relationship between Muslims and other communities. The main idea is to break the stereotypical Muslim image. According to S Anwar, Muslim community is highly diversified with a different history and culture. Anwar through his documen-
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Chennai Life 360
- Kajal Sabherwal
tary points out that Islam came to the south way before it made its presence felt in the North. The spice trade that existed between the Arabs and the Indians in the south asserts that Islam in south is as contemporary as Arabia. It has incorporated many incidents that convey that Islam in the state imbibed local tradition and culture.The documentary portrays that the natives were forcefully converted to Islam, contrary to this belief, the evolution of the community was gradual and has different facet to it.
MUST READS
A list of the top 4 books that you must lay your hands on this month
A History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
By Karen Armstrong
Rs. 377 Random House
Is God An Illusion: The great debate science and spirituality Rs. 339 Rider
Photo: Youtube
Photo: Two Circles
By Deepak Chopra & Leonard Mlodinow
S. Anwar
A snapshot from the documentary
Many Lives, Many Masters
Finding your Religious Identity -By Kajal Sabherwal
Photo: Flipkart
Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a fantasy adventure novel published in 2001. The story is of Piscine Patel, nicknamed Pi and his adventures as a
By Dr Brian Weiss
teenager. A mystical journey of faithful exploration with a fascinating portrayal of human-animal interactions, Life of Pi is Pi’s journey into the world of misadventures. Son of a zoo owner, Pi is a young teenage boy who practices Hinduism, Christianity and Muslim faith. Our focus is drawn to Pi’s experiences of his family, animals and most importantly questioning his faith. Pi’s parents being secularists with absolutely no interest in religion, he is forced to question his faith. Although he thinks that Jesus ministry can’t hold a candle to the exotic adventures of Hindu god, his love seems important. Pi being Hindu, finds himself attracted to Christianity and Islam. He also finds Islam to be a religion of brotherhood and devotion. The urge to question his faith, refuses pi to give up his multipath path of loving god.
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Rs. 212 Little Brown Book Group
The Search That Seeks You
By Sangamithra Amudha, APJ Abdul Kalam
Rs. 164 Random House Photo: Flipkart
A Rising Angel
Intellectually, Wisdom is at the top of the heap, over Data, Information, Knowledge and Intelligence! For Intelligence, Knowledge, Information, Data can all be used to divide humanity. Wisdom alone stands supremely embedded to Unity, which as we mentioned in our Editorial is the Final Solution! Emotionally, Compassion stands at the top of the heap over like, pleasure, attraction, affection, love. For compassion seeks no return. True love too seeks no return, but is usually associated between individuals; Compassion, on the other hand, is universal, only seeks to give. It is an embrace of all that is sentient whether in need or not. It is the primordial, original state. And so we bring these together, in our Logo, qualities if embodied, represent the culmination of progress, represents the pinnacle of human qualities, represents the Angel of the movement we at LIFE 360* personify.