Every Pournami or full moon is beautiful.  

For those in love, it gives a new high.  For those in search of higher truths, it throws light towards enlightenment. The later are in love for the eternal.

Every enlightenment hands over a message.  It is received by the perceiver, on behalf of the entire humanity.

Once it is announced, then starts all trouble.

Those who are around the enlightened, throw up a wall around that person, in the name of protecting that person and the revelation.  And then they claim ownership over that person and the teachings.  It is up to them then to interpret it.  No one other than in that circle are entitled to interpret it.

Then on another full moon, another person has to get the message all over afresh again.  And the drama continues.

World over, in the name of religions and pontiffs, what has happened is only this.

I remember an incident (somewhere in the late 80s) when I had visited the Kanchipuram Sankara Mutt along with some high dignitaries with whom I had laid a precondition that I will not remove my shirt or bow before any one, unless I felt the urge within.

We could converse with the Sri Jayendrasaraswathi and Sri Vijayendrasaraswathi, (who were the second and third in rank then) even with my shirt on.  But when we went to the dining hall, I was warned by a Brahmin serving food that unless I remove my shirt, food will not be served.  I had gone as a part of a delegation and there were much old (of more than 80 years) and venerable persons (One of them having been a close associate of Jayaprakash Narayanan) in the group. It was already 30 minutes past 2 pm and my refusal to remove my shirt would have lead to my walking out of the dining hall and I was sure that the others will find it embarrassing or they will also have to walk out along with me.  Hence, I had to bow to the demand.  My friend, to whom I had conveyed my condition, later approached me and said, ‘did you see Khomeni coming in the form of a Brahmin with a karandi (Ladel) in hand?’ (I should clarify here that my friend was himself a Brahmin)

Another day, I was at the Coimbatore Airport.  T.M.Krishna was also waiting for his flight.  He had written an article a week ago in the The Hindu demanding that the Muslim community also adher to certain rational norms (or something on those lines).  I told Mr. Krishna that even though his article was well intentioned, since he did not belong to that community, he may be mistaken. I also mentioned that inspite of all his efforts in fighting irrationalism in Hinduism, EMS was not appreciated when he tried to comment on Muslim practices. Mr. Krishna perhaps misinterpreted my reasoning as a rabid Hindu view and said that fanatics were there in all religions.  Before I could explain further, my name was called and I had to leave to catch my flight.

When in the millennium edition of the Indian Express T.J.S. George had written that the Western theologians depreciated the Oriental Religions by putting them on a lower pedestrian and to demonstrate that had quoted Dante as having placed Prophet only in a lower pedestrian, his argument, which was in favour of the Muslim religion was not understood and consequently a lot of copies of the news paper went up in flames.

This is what Arundati Roy also meant by her statement quoted at the beginning of this blog.

The really spiritual people have to come together against these vested interests.

Let the full moons enable and enlighten again.