Goddess of Ground Zero

“A temple dedicated to the goddess of Anima”

The only temple in India dedicated to misfortune is found at Thacha-nattu-kara. The presiding deity of this temple is Jyeshta, the elder sister of Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, auspiciousness and of all prosperity. Which makes Jyeshta the goddess of of poverty, indigence and inauspiciousness.

This WAS news. It provided food for thought, firepower for imagination and immense consolation to the soul. NOW I knew where to turn to when the neighbour’s daughter brought an astounding 99% in her exams, whom to dedicate the burnt toast to, whose shoulder to lay my head on when I felt like a four letter word…. The possibilities were immense and I wholeheartedly saluted the master creator of Jyeshta… above all I felt here was one deity who wouldn’t be hung on a 108 flattering names to open her eye to the devotee’s humbling prayers, who could be buzzed ‘hey Jyests!’ or ‘hi Jay’ and who didn’t care a damn about antiseptic offerings…
Jyests wouldn’t be draped in a gold bordered sari flaunting her slender waist and ample bosom, but would be unadorned by jewels and paraphernalia. Her temple wouldn’t have intricate carvings- it would be a mere cobwebbed shelter where birds, animals, insects, the afflicted mind and the incorrigible drunkard all would find refuge.

Going back to folklore,

The two sisters are born rivals. When one is in, the other is out. So the Indian household is engaged in a constant fight to keep Lakshmi in and Jyeshta out. Waste, dirt, slovenliness, indolence, idleness, disorder, anger and all such undesirable things show the presence of Jyeshta in the house. Until she is turned out, Lakshmi wouldn’t enter and stay. In some houses, it is a custom for the lady of the house to open the back door first, send Jyeshta out and then open the front door and let Lakshmi in.

Fine. It was easy enough to imagine Jyeshta ‘physically’ but … what exactly would be the significance of a goddess of – say disorder? Or disgrace? How can a goddess preside over dirt? By definition a god/goddess listens to prayers and gives…. What would Jyeshta give her devotees? Would she condone slovenliness, encourage idleness and provoke anger? She’d be the teenager’s goddess par excellence! Would she then also preside over divorces, abortions and the like? …….Perhaps quite simply, by building her an abode, it was hoped that she would stay put there and not haunt households. This persona non-grata among the Hindu pantheon could be kept busy presiding over her own little empire keeping out of Lakshmi’s haloed pathway.
One probably went there not to ask her for favours but to request her not to radiate inauspicious boons in one’s direction.

On second level thoughts…..

Burnt toast would probably teach me more than a steady pocketmoney …from the need to replace it with something else (when the last of the slices are gone) on the breakfast table to the difficulty in disposing off. Doubts, fears, insecurity and risks cannot be wished away by worshipping Lakshmi. If we consider the innermost regions of our soul, we would find there a Jyeshta temple too. Don’t we in fact feel safer musing over problems in its solitude?

But Jyeshtya is a more formidable personality than that. Unlike the fleeting glitter and glamour of Lakshmi, her roots go deep. She seems to say…your life may have cobwebs and undusted corners; don’t feel wretched about it. A vacuum cleaned life is a myth.…A crisis can be a friend..just as an earthquake, tsunami or volcano-rased land is rebuilt, very often better than before, let a crisis regenerate you. Do not fear fear, trouble…so what if you have an autistic child? You are not only protected from society’s envy, you have been granted a unique extra dimension to view life and enrich others’..

Lakshmi is known to be chanchala-unsteady and fleeting. She is also dukhamoola-the cause of misery and misfortune. Lakshmi is the source of happiness only in appearance. In truth, underneath, she is the source of misery. The fight for Lakshmi (moolah, dukhamoolah) debases and often dehumanizes man. The world loves and worships Lakshmi because it is cursed to love and worship appearances. Lakshmi is the goddess of appearance.
Jyeshta is poor and indigent, but she has strength of character. She is not chanchala. She is not seductive. She discounts appearance. She is steady and unflinching. She has grit. It is the strength of soul which gives man real strength and happiness, not moolah. Beneath the level of appearance, Jyeshta is the giver of strength and happiness. Actually the roles of Lakshmi and Jyeshta are interchanged. In the deep spiritual sense, Lakshmi is Jyeshta and Jyeshta is Lakshmi. The wise worship Jyeshta not Lakshmi.
Lakshmi is the goddess of persona and Jyeshta is the deity of anima.

So…

Jyeshts then would be my goddess of Ground Zero; of the aftermath of ravage, not of post-mortem; the goddess of the just orphaned baby, of the terrorist victim, the abandoned doggie, the laid-off worker, of the parents of the disabled child; one who doesn’t answer to ‘why did you do this to me?’ but who asks with you ‘what can be done now?’ and counselor-like, helps one find self-acceptance and regeneration of the soul.
She is truly the goddess of the Spirit.

Go Nano

Scientists are thinking of netting rogue asteroids a couple of million kilometers away and resetting their orbits to avoid collision with the earth. A million earths can fit in the sun. Pluto is demoted. More celestial beings are contesting the elections to planethood.There are just as many suns in the Universe.

Big, bigger, even bigger, huge, enormous, gigantic…on the other hand…

Tata's Nano is here!!
Indeed, “Go nano” is the latest mantra. From nanopanels to nanopants, nanotubes to nanoparticles, this a whole new world nano-uncovered. I guess it had to happen-after the boom of superlatives, from supermarkets to supermodels to supersonics. It is predicted that Nanotsunami will hit the shores of day to day life shortly, nanoly outdoing the IT revolution.

If Nano seems greek to you, you aren’t far from the truth. Nano is the Greek for dwarf. Nanotechnology is the science associated with the dwarfiest scale possible. The daftiest too. A marble as compared to the earth. The head of a pin is a million nanometers wide. A nanometer would be the hair that grows in the time a man lifts his razor to his face. Micro would be macro in nanoworld. Isnt it fascinating that such a world exists and more fascinating that man has discovered it?

Consider these facts:
At the nanolevel-or the very basic level of matter, changes happen-or can be made to happen. Rearranging the atomic structure of molecules can-so to speak-change a cat into a dog. Nanopants aren’t the male versions of the mini skirt…they are made from nano-enriched fibres which have acquired the property to make stains roll off them. Nano particled structures can be merely coated on a panel to tap solar energy or they could be easily embedded in the plastic body of a cell phone or laptop computer to enhance performance. nano-particles of carbon added make stronger sporting equipment, films….Nanoparticles of gold mixed to glass produce an array of brilliant colours. Nanotechnology may one day generate energy for the world; it is already out to help detect and fight cancers.

Our body remains the uniquely wonderful nanofactory: ever wondered how the food we eat becomes nutrition?

Fascinated with the explanations and the seemingly limitless possibilities of nanotechnology in the material world, I let my mind wander a bit…
My kitchen would have containers of nanoparticles of proteins and carbohydrates and the like and I would daintily customize dishes as per each family member’s health needs.
If nanoparticles of aluminium have been found to explode, they can be added to rocket fuel no doubt but maybe I could stock a container of it and have varied nanofireworks whenever boredom threatens. Nano-enriched nutrients sprinkled on my plants would make my garden grow cockle-shells and silver bells like that of Miss Mary…I could change the texture and the designs of my saris at will by spraying nanoparticles on them. The maid would no longer have to fear breaking glassware as nanoparticles embedded in them would make them maid-proof. Nano-particled detectors would sniff out misplaced things in a jiffy and avert major household wars. Magicians could use nanotechnology to bring in some change to age old tricks. It needn’t be just bringing out a pigeon from a hat, but perhaps deftly use nanoshells to build, glue and seal sawed bodies in nanoseconds…. Godmen with a propensity to make magic could take a crash course in nanotechnology and make things happen to proclaim their divine calling. A dwarf could be viewed from nanoangle and Miss World’s vital stats could change units.
One of the pioneers of nanotechnology said that the ultimate level of control was dealing with one atom at a time and that building from there would be the greatest revolution for mankind.

On a personal front I think transposing the basic principle of nanotechnology to another plane could make sense. Just as nanotechnology is all about going to the very atom of matter and building from there, if we knew how to get to the very basic-lets say grassroot level-of the human mind and spirit, could we avert a majority of crises? As a spokesman of ISKCON says ‘ We moderns have researched tirelessly to understand and control the external world, but we have neglected research to control the inner world’. Knowing the innermost minds of terrorists is the ‘in’ thing these days; many books have been written on it. How early in life doesn’t a child lose his/her individual spark? Very often don’t we just try patch-working, brushing-under carpet, superimposing views, brainwashing and plain dictatorship as the sole means of bringing about changes in the world to our liking?

Try nanopsychology for a change!