Death is Faithful

जिंदगी तो बेव़फा हैं एक दिन ठुकरायेगी

मौत मेहबूबा हैं अपने साथ लेकर जायेगी

मर के जीने की अदा जो दुनियां को सिखलायेगा 

वो मुकद्दर् का सिकंदर, जान-ए-मन कहलायेगा

 

These are immortal words by the great Indian lyricist Anjaan.  The crude translation is

 

Life is unfaithful, one day it will leave you

Death is a lover, it will take you with it 

The one who will teach the world

How to live after dying

will be called the king of destiny, my dear”

 

This is not my first post on death. Unfortunately, i have sen death from very close quarters in the last few years. I have earlier written about death and my contradictions with life and death.

This post is about a bird , a female Asian koel which took its last breath in our house in full presence of my family and couple of friends. It was sad to see her die. But it was inevitable and her time was up. 

 

It was 10:30 AM on a sunday and as usual we were late for a function and were hurrying up. As i drove my car past the neighbourhood, my wife  spotted a strange hurt bird on the road. I did not bother much about it. 

 

We returned in the afternoon and couple of my friends were at home. As we were chatting on the road, we spotted the bird again. It was a female Asian Koel. She was in a very bad condition. We tried to give her some water . But she refused. 

 

We did not know what do about it. We did not want to see her die. We did not want to leave her on the road. So my friend picked it up and got it to our house. I called my cousin who is an ornithologist. We sent her the pictures . I asked my friends on facebook on what i could do about it. 

 

Unfortunately, we learnt that the bird was in her last stages and had given up food and water. 

 

However, my fried tried to give her some water but she violently refused. The fact is, Asian koel birds in their last stages give up water and food and wait for their inevitable call. They know when their life mission is over and will wait for their lover (death) without food and water. 

 

She took her last breath as we stood in our little garden silently observing her. We had made friends with her and let her go in 4 hours. It was a strange feeling. 

 

As the lyricist Anjaan said, Our Koel left food and water for her lover (Mehabooba) . It is so strange that the hurt bird was on the road all day and we ignored her. The guilt of ignoring her will always haunt me.

 

When we came back in the afternoon she was waiting for our nursing. She finally took her last breath in our house. Probably this is what is called destiny. 

 

Our friend thought us two priceless lessons. We must not have ignored her when we first saw her dying on the road. It is so sad that we were more interested in attending a ceremony leaving an old and hurt life on the road. 

 

The exit from the world should be graceful. By design or default, our little friend thought us the importance of leaving a graceful footprint before leaving the world. RIP my Friend. 

Interpretations…

Few years back , Winter of 2008 to be precise, i drove to the beautiful hills of kodikanal with best buddies Kiran S.R and Girish Koppad. It was one of the most memorable drives for me. Kiran had come home to India for a vacation. We always make it a point to hit the road whenever he comes to India. We left in the afternoon to reach Dingigul by midnight. The next day we drove to Kodaikanal. 

 

It was a memorable drive for various reasons. Apart from the beautiful hills and great time with friends, that was one of the first road trips where we discussed philosophy. We had a great lengthy discussion on what is life and why is life and what we end up in life and why for we end up with what we end up? We discussed relationships, failed relationships , desire, marriage , old age  etc. All through the discusion we were accompanied by the magical voice of Sri Vidhabhushan singing naa donakadarenu. 

 

Many events in early 2008 had got me thinking about what life is all about. I still have no answers to all my questions and i am far far away from even getting a hint for the answer. Anyway i am not writing here about the questions and contractions that has engulfed me for the last few years. 

In the process of my eternal search for truth rather virtual truth , i got introduced to the beautiful world of Kannada literature. (i call  virtual truth because i am not sure if there is really something called as “truth”). 
I got a chance to listen to the great works of stalwarts like Kuvempu, D.R.Bendre, Pu.thi.Narasimhachar, Dr G.S.Shivarudrappa and Gopalakrishna Adiga. Though i have not read anything much about these great men, i am thrilled and mesmerized by the depth of their thought and eloquence of expression. 
I made a couple of trips to Kupalli, the birth place of Rashtrakavi late Dr Kuvempu. Located in the beautiful theerthalli taluk, Kupalli is a must visit for any art or nature lover. I made a trip to Sadhankeri to the house of Varakavi late Dr.Daa.Raa.Bendre. I also visited Pu. thi Naraimhachar’s house in Melkote early this year.  

Almost all of the above great men talk about life in general. For example, Dr Dattatreya ramachandra bendre writes “ರಸವೇ ಜನನ  , ವಿರಸ ಮರಣ, ಸಮರಸವೇ ಜೀವನ It roughly translates as “Struggle for harmony through conflict is life” .  Gopala krishna Adiga writes very beautifully that “ಇದು ಬಾಳು ನೋಡು; ಇದ ತಿಳಿದನೆಂದರೂ ತಿಳಿದ ಧೀರನಿಲ್ಲ; ಹಲವುತನದ ಮೈಮರೆಸುವಾಟವಿದು;ನಿಜವು ತೋರದಲ್ಲ !” which roughly translates as “Look, this is life, and no Brave man, despite his claims, has found what life is all about. It reveals myriad intoxicating games, but it won’t reveal the truth”.

 

Before i proceed, I must put a disclaimer here that i am no writer or commentator on literary works. I am only trying to put my thoughts with my very limited knowledge and very myopic outlook towards life.

 

It is very very difficult to dwell to the depth at which these great men think and write. Particularly for laymen like men who have no knowledge about philosophy or literature, it is very difficult to understand the writings of these great men.

 

Gopala Krisha adiga

Few months back while i was listening to the songs of kuvempu, i found a strange contraction in his view about beauty. I have already written my observation with my limited understanding.  As i have written earlier, it may not be a contradiction after all. It may be just my lack of understanding. 

 

Few days back,i was listening to a superb piece of poetry by Gopala krishna Adiga. This is the famous “ಯಾವ ಮೋಹನ ಮುರಳಿ ಕರೆಯಿತು” . The poetry goes like this 

 

   “ಯಾವ ಮೋಹನ ಮುರಳಿ ಕರೆಯಿತು 

ದೂರ ತೀರಕೆ ನಿನ್ನನು

ಯಾವ ಬೃಂದಾವನವು ಸೆಳೆಯಿತೋ
ನಿನ್ನ ಮಣ್ಣಿನ ಕಣ್ಣನ

ಹೂವು ಹಾಸಿಗೆ ಚಂದ್ರ ಚಂದನ
ಬಾಹು ಬಂಧನ ಚುಂಬನ
ಬಯಕೆ ತೋಟದ ಬೇಲಿಯೊಳಗೆ
ಕರಣಗಳದೀ ರಿಂಗಣ

ಸಪ್ತ ಸಾಗರದಾಚೆ ಎಲ್ಲೋ

ಸುಪ್ತ ಸಾಗರ ಕಾದಿದೆ

ಮೊಳೆಯದಲೆಗಳ ಮೂಕ ಮರ್ಮರ

ಇಂದು ಇಲ್ಲಿಗು ಹಾಯಿತೇ

ವಿವಶವಾಯಿತು ಪ್ರಾಣ ಹಾ!

ಪರವಶವು ನಿನ್ನೀ ಚೇತನ

ಇರುವುದೆಲ್ಲವ ಬಿಟ್ಟು

ಇರದುದರೆಡೆಗೆ ತುಡಿವುದೆ ಜೇವನ

ಯಾವ ಮೋಹನ ಮುರಳಿ ಕರೆಯಿತೋ

ಇದ್ದಕಿದ್ದಲೆ ನಿನ್ನನು

ಯಾವ ಬೃಂದಾವನವು ಚಾಚಿತೋ

ತನ್ನ ಮಿಂಚಿನ ಕೈಯನು

 

ಯಾವ ಮೋಹನ ಮುರಳಿ ಕರೆಯಿತು
ದೂರ ತೀರಕೆ ನಿನ್ನನು “.

The more i listen to this poetry , the more i am drawn into a strange internal philosophical conflict. In a nutshell, the poetry talks bout futility of desire.  But there is no much clarity on what exactly is desire. The concept of “Desire” is subject to countless interpretations depending on which side of the philosophical school you belong to. 

I am not going into my views on desire but i will try and articulate my views on one paragraph from the above poetry which has landed me in a strange contradiction (or confusion?). The paragraph goes 

“ವಿವಶವಾಯಿತು ಪ್ರಾಣ ಹಾ!
ಪರವಶವು ನಿನ್ನೀ ಚೇತನ
ಇರುವುದೆಲ್ಲವ ಬಿಟ್ಟು
ಇರದುದರೆಡೆಗೆ ತುಡಿವುದೆ ಜೇವನ !! ” 

In the overall context of the poetry, this paragraph can be subjected to two different interpretations. 

 

The poet may be trying to say that  Life must be all about leaving what one has and try to search for something what he does not. (That may be truth or a higher calling). That is, a man must look for attainment of higher goals and not long for short term worldly pleasures. 

 

Another interpretation is that , Life is all about foolishness of ignoring what is present and enjoyable and chasing a futile desire.  That is the poet may be trying to say that a man’s life is wasted in his search for something out of his reach at the cost of what he has at his hand. 

 

But mostly accepted interpretation is the latter one. Looking carefully at the overall context of the poetry, the second interpretation is more appropriate and plausible. 

 

However, for me there is a confusion since many times i tend to believe that the first interpretation is true and that is what human life must be all about. 

 

Anyway this is food for thought for me.. 

 

Before i sign off, my next blog will be about the talk i am  attending tomorrow by  the world’s first double amputee mountaineer Mark inglis who climbed the Mount Everest by his mind. 

 

  “ಯಾವ ಮೋಹನ ಮುರಳಿ ಕರೆಯಿತು “

 

 

Beauty is in Presence not in Possession

Last year, just before summer , i brought a Jasmine sapling (ಮೂರು ಸುತ್ತಿನ ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆ)  from Lalbagh (Bangalore) and planted it in my garden. It was a small sapling, and by summer, few jasmine buds started appearing on it. Excited by seeing the buds, i brought another sapling from a local nursery and planted it during summer. Within a few days jasmine buds started appearing on that as well. 

Since both were small saplings, not many flowers blossomed last year. However, we could see a few flowers in them throughout the summer of 2011. 

Outside the house, on the side of the road, i have planted Nerium (ಕಣಗಳು) , Hibiscus (ದಾಸವಾಳ) and Champak (ಸಂಪಿಗೆ) plants. Nerium was planted long back while the Hibiscus and Champak were planted just last year. While Hibiscus and Nerium have grown well and flowers have started to blossom, the champak has not grown well. The road side cattle are not allowing the champak tree to grow. 

Nerium

Nerium, Champak and Hibiscus are relatively maintenance free. They grow in relatively less fertile soils. Champak tree grows tall while the nerium spreads fast. So they are good choices to plant on the road side. Champak flowers have a fantastic aroma. In fact , the fantastic fragrance of Champak flowers attract snakes. 


By early monsoon of last year, i decided to buy a new car (Ford Figo). Since the new car was wider than the previous car (Wagon R), i had to widen the drive way to accommodate the new car. I had two choices, one was to sacrifice the garden which apart from two jasmine saplings also had chrysanthemum (ಶಾವಂತಿಗೆ)  , hibiscus (ದಾಸವಾಳ ), Broccoli, Tulasi and few other flowering plants. The other choice was to sacrifice the grill and a portion of the extended portico to accommodate the car. Out of love for these plants (i had planted them), i decided to demolish the extended portico. It was an expensive decision. I had to repaint the front wall, fix an additional door for safety. But it was worth it. There was no point in harming those plants. 


Jasmine plants are more than an year old now. Its mid summer now and everyday morning, i can see many blossomed flowers on the plant. There will be at least three to four hibiscus flowers and quite a few nerium flowers on the plants outside the house. One feels happy to see these flowers early in the morning. (We could see many Nerium flowers in December-January season). 


But the sad part is, no one wants to see the beauty on the plant. No one wants to leave the beauty in peace and enjoy its presence. For a few morning walkers who pass in front of my house, their day starts by plucking the nerium and hibiscus flowers in front of my house. They not only pluck the flowers, they go to the extent of reaching far off flowers by bending the branches of the plant. They do not realize that they are harming the plant and damaging the branches which left otherwise would show up with more flowers in a few days. 


Inside the compound, my mother does not leave any jasmine flowers. By 7 :30 AM, all the flowers will be plucked. 


Is it just human attitude that we cannot see beauty as it is? Or are we so myopic that we are handicapped to appreciate beauty in its natural form. Why is there an urge to possess beauty. Agreed that the flowers will be used for worship (pooja).  But why should the flower be plucked and put at the feet of the lord in a closed hot room? That flower will dry up and fade away in a few hours which otherwise would have smiled on the plant for a at least a few more days. 


Is beauty only there to be possessed or competed for? Is it not there just to be enjoyed? What is beauty? What is the role of beauty? 


Beauty is grace of god. Grace is in presence not necessarily in possession. Possession is arresting beauty. Beauty must prevail and transcend beyond materialistic human urge for possession. 


I am signing off  by quoting Nobel laureate Rabindranath tagore ; 

“Love adorns itself; It seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty” 

Literary Contradiction

Below is a small article on a very interesting contradiction (two brilliant works) that i found in one of our great literary giants Rashtrakavi Kuvempu’s writings (ಕುಪಳ್ಲಿ ವೆಂಕಟಪ್ಪ ಪುಟ್ಟಪ್ಪ ೧೯೦೪-೧೯೯೪).

Before i proceed, i must mention that my knowledge level is very low and in particular i have no knowledge of literature or language. I am not a scholar to understand poetry of the class of kuvempu. I have not read any serious literature in any language. I have no standing to comment on any literary work let alone commenting on the work of Padhma Bhushana Jnana peeta awardee Rashtrakavi Kuvempu.

I just happened to listen to these poems and felt like penning down my thoughts. My views may be totally absurd and out of context.

In one of his works kuvempu writes ;

“ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವೆನ್ನ ಹರಿ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವೆನ್ನ ಹರ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವೆನ್ನ ಅವ್ಯಕ್ತ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮ
ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವೇ ಪುಣ್ಯ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವೇ ಸ್ವರ್ಗ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವೇ ನನ್ನ ಚರಮ ಮೋಕ್ಷ..
ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲದಿಹ ಲೋಕ ರೌರವ ನರಕ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವಿರೆ ನರಕ ವದುವೆ ನಾದ
ಸೌಂದರ್ಯಕ್ಕಿಂತಲಧಿ ಕದರ ದೇವರುಮಿಲ್ಲ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲದಿರೆ ದೇವರಿಲ್ಲ” ………..

Its beyond my capacity to understand this correctly let alone to translate this. But very crudely put, the poet in this poetry is saying that “Beauty is his god in all the three forms (Brahma, vishnu, Maheshwara), Beauty is heaven and that beauty is his salvation. For the poet, the world is a cruel hell without beauty and that there is NO GOD WITHOUT BEAUTY”……..

In an other classic work, Kuvempu writes;

ಆನಂದಮಯ ಈ ಜಗಹೃದಯ ಏತಕೆ ಭಯ ಮಾಣೋ
ಸೂರ್ಯೋದಯ ಚಂದ್ರೋದಯ ದೇವರ ದಯ ಕಾಣೋ

ರವಿವದನವೇ ಶಿವಸದನವೊ ಬರಿ ಕಣ್ಣದು ಮಣ್ಣೋ
ಶಿವನಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವೇ ಶವ ಮುಖದ ಕಣ್ಣೋ

ಉದಯದೊಳೇನ್ ಹೃದಯವ ಕಾಣ್, ಅದೇ ಅಮೃತದ ಹಣ್ಣೋ
ಶಿವಕಾಣದೆ ಕವಿ ಕುರುಡನೋ ಶಿವ ಕಾವ್ಯದ ಕಣ್ಣೋ

ಆನಂದಮಯ ಈ ಜಗಹೃದಯ.
ಆನಂನಂದಮಯ ಈ ಜಗಹೃದಯ.

This is more difficult than the previous one for my poor brain to understand. Again very very crudely put; Kuvempu here is saying “without god (Shiva), beauty is like eyes of a dead body, God is the eye of any poetry and that a poet is blind if he cannot see god (in his poetry?)” .

In both the above poems “Beauty” is the theme. Of course, i have quoted only part of the respective poems. Actually the second one is a more complex and quite deep for me to even get a gist of it.

Nevertheless, Beauty is central to both the poems. At the basic level of my understanding, the two poems seems mutually contradicting. In the first one, poet says beauty is God, Beauty is heaven and that there cannot be a God without beauty. While at the second one he says God is beauty and beauty without god is like a dead body’s eye.

Or does he? or isn’t it the same thing. Beauty=god or god=beauty, what difference does it make?? or is the comparison simply out of line and two are totally different from each other and should not be compared?

As i said earlier,i am no scholar to understand this let alone commenting on it or or debate on it.

(I have the full version of both the poems sung respectively by Dr C.Ashwath and Shimoga Subanna. If anybody wants it please drop me a mail. i will send it).

Life is Unfaithful, One day it will leave you.

[I had written this  back in 2008 but never felt like publishing it in Public. Since its been almost three years , i thought of publishing it now]. 

 

It was in January 2003 (I was 19) that i entered the ICU (Intensive care unit) for the first time in my life. Actually it was called CCU (Cardiac Care unit) in the first floor of Mallya hospital ,Bangalore. That was my father’s first attack of pulmonary edema. This was my father’s first major cardiac related hospitalization after his By-Pass operation in 1993. It was a very strange feeling . He had pipes all around his body and was looking a bit scary. I was seeing someone in such a state from mere 2 feet distance for the first time. To be frank, i did not want to stay in the hospital since i was actually very uncomfortable and a little scared. I had strange feeling of the idea of death, disease etc. Later of course i went to the cellar of the hospital and sat on a sofa all night.

The next day was strange in more ways than one. I returned to the hospital only in the evening and was planning to stay back there for the night. That day i had a company. A middle aged man may be in his late 40s who had got his son to the hospital a couple of days back since the latter complained of chest pain. He was a jovial rajasthani who had actually come for his son’s CET exam. We had a nice chat. He was happy about his son’s recovery. He said that his son would be taken out of the CCU the next day. Within an hour’s time he went off somewhere and i sat on the sofa outside CCU all night. I was all alone there outside the CCU in the night. Unfortunately, the 18 year son of the rajasthani died around 1:30 in the morning. I found myself in a weird situation. All night we were searching for his father who could not be traced till 7:30 in the morning. Once he came to the CCU, he could not believe the sequence of events and he simply could not control himself. The rest is the story of administration at the hospital which is not worth writing.

The next day was even more eventful. I went home trying to digest a shocking news.Meantime my father had recovered and was doing well. He had also got to know the unfortunate event that had taken place last night. I returned to the hospital the next day afternoon. My father was doing fine and there was talk about his discharge the next day. I had a brief chat with him and came out and i was offered sweets by a lady. She had just become a grandmother. (At the mallya hospital, the labour ward is just next to CCU). This was probably the strangest feeling i have had. Six hours back, at the very spot there was an helpless man who had lost his son. Now at the same spot is a lady who is happy to serve doodh peda (A sweet made of milk) to everyone there. This may sound very casual. People are born and they die, so what? Yes so what? That is the big question. Why did that very person die and why did this very person take birth ? Why was there such a change in the atmosphere within 6 hours? The distance measured in absolute linear scale between death and birth was only 10 meters (distance between labour ward and CCU). The time gap was less than 12 hours.


Anyways this was my first meeting with the phenomenon of death. As a matter of fact the first dead body i saw from a distance of less than 3 feet was that 18 year old boy.

From 2003 to 2008, my father had many such attacks and recovered. He used to have attacks at odd hours like 2 or 3 in the morning. But i was never scared. He used to recover in less than 5 hours thanks to super-fast treatment from Dr.Prakash, our Family doctor who is actually responsible for 5 year extension to my father’s life.

 

It was only on 7 February 2007, that i got scared again by phenomenon of death. It was around 9:30 in the morning that i got a call from my mother saying that my father is complaining about numbness and feeling very cold. My Parents had returned from gurvayur that morning. I was in the library and i immediately rushed home. Father was standing near the gate completely covered with a jeans jacket. He said, we cannot wait for the car and i immediately called for an auto. My father vomited close to half a mug of blood in the auto.He was very uncomfortable. I had never seen him in that state. I actually thought that that was the end. Never before was he so serious. Never before had he complained about absolute no sensation in both the arms. I thought that he would not survive till the hospital. That day, we did not get stuck at any signal, the traffic police at a junction immediately cleared us seeing my father’s condition.But as usual appa was up and running within 12 hours and he let me proceed with the tirupathi trip the next day.

Exactly one year later, 7 February 2008, my father was taken to Mallya hospital never to return home alive. From my memory, probably the 15 days from 7 to 21 February was the most anxious days for all M.B.Brothers and family.( I was too young when my grandmother passed away and i cannot recollect clearly the mood in the family few days before her death.)

But this time my father was not in CCU but ICU. One floor above CCU.

Few days before my father’s death, another death happened one floor below, in the labour ward. The death was of a baby which did not open its eyes.


How unfair the world is? What was the purpose of that baby’s life? (was it to give employment to the doctor who operated on its mother or was it to give business to the companies which manufacture nutrition to expecting mothers?or was it to bring some revenue to the hospital which can create secondary employment? may be or may not be it is a mixture of all this. i do not know.) . Five years back a happy lady had given me doodh peda at the very spot. Five years later i witnessed uncontrollable tears on another grandmother.

 

It was then on 21 February 2008 that the inevitable happened.There was a strange,weird and helpless silence around .


My father’s life is the story of grit,courage, compassion and generosity. A mighty spirited man who fought an open heart surgery when he was 27 (In 1970, he traveled unreserved, standing from Baroda to Mumbai to undergo the surgery). That was followed up with a By-Pass surgery in 1993. He scaled Badrinath and kedarnath in 1999. With all that he faced in life, he was in absolute love with life. He never complained against anything and had no regrets in life. He was the first person to offer a helping hand, at times at the cost of his own health. He was known for his generosity. No one who came to him asking for help in cash or kind were turned down. 
His spirits were so high  that even in his death bed, when he got the news that my brother will be flying in from America to see him, he sent a note to me to ask my brother to get few bottles of whiskey . When i enquired him if he wanted whiskey in his present condition, he said it was not for him but for his Brother and few of his close friends. 


At the end of the day, for how much he loved his life and how much others loved him , few lines written by the Hindi lyricist  Anjaan will be the perfect tribute to the life and death of the great man 

“Life is unfaithful, one day it will leave you

Death is a lover, it will take you with it

The one who will teach the world

How to live after dying

will be called the king of destiny, my dear”

 

[This Experience made me to write another blog long back in 2008. Read it here]

What does Purandara mean?

I am having a doubt from a very very long time about the word Purandara. Purandara is believed to be the Hindu god “Indra”. Purandara is also used many times with Vittala as in “Purandara Vittala”. Also there was a great saint in the vijayanagara empire by name “Purandara Dasa” who championed the Bhakti movement in Karnataka in the 15 century A.D.

But i am not able to decipher the meaning of Puradara. For me its Pura+Dara. As far as i know (of course i have no knowledge of sanskrit(assuming the word is from sanskrit)), Pura means city and dara means destroyer, so purandhara means destroyer of cities. Is my understanding correct? If so why is god given such a negative name? If i am wrong, what is the actual meaning of purandhara?

To find the answer to this problem (ಜಿಜ್ಞಾಸೆ). I tried finding the solution from first principles. I referred few books and asked a number of people. Below are the set of answers i got/found.

1) The actual meaning of Purandara is indeed destroyer of cities

(http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/cgi-bin/dictionary/search.cgi?scheme=our&startrow=0&exact=yes&word=pur@dr&domain=dict&mask=0&mode=0)

(http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Purandara.html)

2)Purandara is given as a name of Indra as destroyer of strongholds.A link is still needed between him and Vittala.

3)”The Aryans were vigorous nomadic people. They entered India not as invaders but as peaceful emigrants, with their flocks of cattle, their household goods and gods. Soon however , they seem to have come into conflict with people living in fortified areas (Puras and Durgas)under their own kings and chiefs. The rig Veda itself speaks of hundred pillared forts of enemies that the aryans had to contend with. Many of the hyms of the Vedas are addressed to the gods for assistance in fighting these enemies and it is significant that the high god of the Vedas, Indra, is described as purandara, the shaker of cities. There is also an interesting statement about an attack on a hundred towns of an aboriginal king ( Source:Panikkar K.M. “A survey of Indian History”. PP 6.)

( If this argument is to be accepted then we can say that, the high god of Vedas destroyed cities, caused harm to people and used force to drive out aboriginal people.( However we still do not know if the original people were causing any harm to the invaders.) In the modern context, if this theory is to be accepted,then Israelis are doing no harm to Palestine. If gods in Vedas can drive out aboriginal people then why cant Israel? This however is moving away from the original context. Why god is given a negative name(Assuming aboriginals were not causing harm))

4)Human body is also called pura. (Humans are referred to as Purushas because of this meaning.) Hence, Purandara means Destroyer of body. The Jeeva in a body is surrounded by many layers – External one or the first one being Sthoola deha or Physical body, and the last layer which is a cover attached to the jeeva called Linga deha.Jeeva is subjected to rebirths, everytime acquiring new physical bodies.The other layer Linga deha is kind of permanently attached to the jeeva and will move from birth to birth along with the jeeva.When the Linga deha is removed or destroyed the Jeeva is liberated and attains moksha. The destroyer of pura, the body thus liberates the Jeeva or grants moksha. Thus Purandara is a name of God, the moksha-dayaka(giver). The meaning is not negative when you look at it as granter of the greatest of wishes.(Purandara dasaru is poet saint who has called himself dasa (servant) of the God (Purandara).

This argument opens the Pandora’s box and raises many controversies. In this sense god becomes self contradictory. Why at all should he create lives and grant them moksha? Should he create life in the first place and make people long for moksha? Why people go and pray to purandara if they don’t get married or don’t have children? Purandara in this sense of the term is supposed to be the destroyer of of body and liberator of souls. These questions can go on. Concept of moksha can be pulled on into many controversies. Moksha actually means liberation from the cycle of birth and death. I shall revisit this concept some other time. (If everyone in this world genuinely believe that the idea or purpose of life is to get Moksha, then the world must stop procreating. In that way, every couple will be helping one atma(linga deha) to get moksha.)

5)In Vishnusahasranama, 335th nama is Purandara. Its meaning is recorded as “He is the destroyer of cities. He is “Purandara” because He destroyed the cities of Asuras. He destroys the bodies of the souls, or the covering of the soul by what is called “Lingadeha” and grants salvation. He destroyed Hiranyakashipu and saved His devotee Prahlada. (This meaning is found in the book by Aralu mallige Parthasarathy).

6) Puram darayati iti purandarah. In tripura samharam (Destruction of three Cities of gold, silver and Iron belonging to Tarakasura’s children Vidhyunmaali, Taarakaksha and Kamalaaksha respectively) by Siva, Bhagavan Vishnu became the arrow for Siva, and in addition, being the antaryami for him, helped in the destruction of the three cities. Since, Vishnu was the arrow that destroyed these cities, He (Vishnu) got the name “Puran-dhara” [Source “Puramoru munrerittu” – tiruvai mozhi1.1.8 (Sr V.V.Ramanujan)].  

7) Sri Raadhakrishna Sastri points out that the term puram is also used to refer to the three Sariras viz. the sthula,sukshma, and karaaa sariras. He is purandara because he has torn apart these three and is the Atma beyond these three Sariras.

Looking at the above versions, one thing is definitely correct. Certainly the name Purandara is used in the destroyer/destructor sense of the term. God has done and is doing many benevolent acts, but i do not know why a name used in a destructive sense has become one of the popular names of god.

The discussions took me to a kannada professor one day who altogether refuted the the destroyer meaning in “dara” of word “Purandara”. He was of the opinion that purandara is “Sustainer or holder of cities” . He compared this with Muralidhara (One who wears/holds the flute).

Yet to find a convincing answer!!! The ಜಿಜ್ಞಾಸೆ continues.