oka candamAma katha
Prabhakar Vissavajjhala (vissavajjhala@yahoo.com)
Wed, 29 Apr 1998 10:25:48 -0700 (PDT)
oka candamAma katha
Once upon a time, a very very young princess was a great painter. She
makes an extraordinary painting, which gets name and fame widely as
many visitors from different places come over to see that and shower
high praise on her. But (as one can expect) surprisingly, the princess
looks to be becoming sad and sad with increasing appreciation for her
work and finally falls sick even. The king gets puzzled and thinks
probably, there might have been a very rare mistake in the painting,
so she is becoming sick. Hence, he invites all the experts, who fail
to find anything wrong with the painting. Finally, he calls the
'guru', who taught the princess painting. He stares at the painting
for a while, and asks for a private conversation with the princess,
who by that time was almost half-dead. But surprisingly, after a while
both the princess and the 'guru' come out of the room smilingly. The
'guru' suggests the king that the princess would learn music and
dancing. As the king asks what is the reason for the sudden happy
change in the princess, the'guru' says she has reached a peak in the
art of painting, where there is nothing else left for her to achieve.
So, being very young, she could not even sense her problem and became
sick as she can't think of doing anything else. So, in order to get
her back on track, the 'guru' is suggesting something else to learn
and get expertise in, which cheered her up, as she sensed that there
can be done something, when there is nothing else left in what one can
do, in one's own chosen field.
Matching with this concept, I found in 'sitAra', the telugu
cine-magazine, once, the popular telugu playback singer SPB, told when
he was asked why he was concentrating on acting some roles of late,
'gAnam lO pondalEni tRpti, naTana lO pondaTaniki
prayatnistunnAnu'.
At the same time, I wonder how many people do properly concentrate on
the 'right track of action', when they feel nothing else to do; either
due to having achieved a lot in the field they have chosen or due to
lack of resources available to do what one wanted to do. As far as
'action or deed' (karma), which is the basic knitting phenomenon of
all the worldly movement (lOkOyam karma bandhanah), there are three
types of them, as per 'bhagavadgeeta'. They are 'karma'(right
deed/action), 'akarma' (inaction; not doing what is supposed to be
done) and 'vikarma (unwanted/abusive/forbidden/crazy action, that
causes inconvenience to others). So, I wonder how many people when one
finds oneself in a situation of leisurely time or uneasy calm, i.e.,
when there is nothing else to do, attempt a proper 'action' rather
than a 'forbidden or crazy' action or at leaset remain 'inactive'
instead of involving in improper activities. One can not resist
recollecting the proverb 'An idle man's mind is a devil'. (As usually,
once again, who decides what is proper and improper is naturally a big
question and debatable always, as it follows the concepts of
'ullEkhamu' and 'ardhAntaranyAsamu' invariably.)
Coming to the contrary of it, I remember one short story by
'madhurAntakam rAjArAm' named 'proddu cAlani manishi'. In brief, a
person keeps on relentlessly working from morning to late night, is a
literary critic. Once a friend of him asks for his comments on a
literary work, for which the main man of the story finds time on the
hospital bed as he meets with an accident. His literary friend comes
to see him, and says that he brought another one for his comments, but
for the sake of his comments, he doesn't want to see his freind on the
hospital bed again, as that man works relentlessly and doesn't waste
time.
With regards,
Prabhakar Vissavajjhala
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