• BPA is found in linings of canned food and soft drinks, plastic bottles (including plastic baby bottles), hard clear plastics like sports bottles and plastic containers, and food wrapping.
• BPA is linked to cancer (by disrupting hormone systems in the body that can prevent cancer), heart disease, sexual dysfunction, liver disorders, and development in small children.
• In 2008 Canada declared BPA as a toxin and banned its use in baby bottles.
• To show how prevalent it is, more than 90% of U.S. population had traces of BPA in their urine according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• BPA leeches into food even at cold temperatures.
• A bill has been proposed in the U.S. Congress that would ban BPA from all food and drink packages in the USA.
• The BPA industry has been fiercely fighting these restrictions. No surprise, considering the industry produces more than 6 billion tons of BPA annually.
• There are 30 states in the USA that have bills pending for the ban on BPA.

With increasing awareness and ban on BPA in North America and Europe… anyone care to take a guess at where the BPA industry is going to be heading now? after all the six largest manufactures of baby bottles announced they would voluntarily stop selling bottles made with BPA in the United States. So, “third-world” countries… watch out, there’s more snake oil headed your way. The common recommendation is to avoid bottles/plastics with the “No. 7″ symbol at the bottom as they are likely to contain BPA. But what about in countries where no such standards are in place? Might as well stop using plastics all together (or for that matter anything “modern” like non-stick) and stick to “tradition” — good old stainless steel. Maybe even switch back to tiffin carriers and steel tumblers. Everyone wants to be healthy but when it comes to sacrificing convenience surprisingly many find any excuse.

Links

• Washington Post
• The Globe and Mail
• National Geographic
• ABC News

Watch out for quite aggressive monkeys — probably the most aggressive I’ve seen in India so far — make sure you secure your backpacks tightly and carry a stick. Only thing I could ask for is a bicycle path/trail — the concept of which is alien here, but something I miss from living in Virginia — trails through thick wooded areas; lets you go far deeper into the terrain to places you normally wouldn’t if were travelling just on foot.

A short 3km uphill trek will get you to the Shenbaga Devi falls. It is one of several water falls that feed the Kuttralam falls about 5 km downstream. All these falls are deified with temples built near/around them.

Source of Kutraalam Main Falls.

Clean green litter-free landscape (a rare sight in Tamil Nadu - unfortunately!).

The path is incredibly pristine. Not a single speck of litter for the entire stretch! It's about 3 km climb (initial 1 km is very steep).

Accompanying about 1/3 of the journey up is this rapidly flowing creek (though doesn't look like it in the photo), crystal-clear water, run-off from the water falls up ahead.

The water falls (one of five that feed the kuttraalam falls about 5 km downstream). Small, but quite rapid force. Feels like you're being pelted by sacks of rice, and towards the center the force almost pins you down.

Site: Velapar Murugan (வேலப்பர் முருகன்)
Map: +9° 51′ 2.40″ N, +77° 35′ 54.00″ E, 500m.

This is located en-route to Theni from Madurai city, past township called Aandipatti. There is also a small road side rest-stop/temple – DharmaSastha (தர்மசாஸ்தா) located here along the way, at 339m. We got a generous helping of piping hot brown sugar pongal prasadam wrapped in clean banana leaves there (donate some money for their service!).

The priests in the destination temple, Velapar Murugan, and the area itself is from a community of native/indigenous tribal folks (ஆதி). The perform puja chanting was distinctively different in their native Tamil dialect (neither Sanskrit nor classical Tamil). We went off season so the whole trek was quiet and to ourselves.

The last quarter stretch of steps to the top.

The temple.

About 2 km walk on a narrow and rocky dirt trail, past the temple, some berries - kalaakaay (கலாகாய்) up high on the tree tops. The ripe ones look and taste a bit like navaa-pazham.

The three local kids who accompanied me on this trek, feasting on kalaakaay after going through all means to get at these branches from the tree tops.

“That’s not how we sound!” Hahaha! Comic! Aasif Mandvi did this so well! Everyone should see this. See also this article on Aasif Mandvi: A Man Called Mandvi.

It’s a play on the discovery of water on the moon by ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organization) a week back, how American news eclipses things like this (they’d rather be showing call centers, tandooris, Apu’s,…). For those of you who don’t know, India’s space program has become a global player in the space industry business, taking on a significant share of the pie (NASA is no longer the sole forerunner). See for example PSLV-C9.

Yet another indicator why this recession is no ordinary recession for the USA but a levelling out of the playing field with large populous countries like China, India, Brazil on the rise. Americans (in particular those living on credit of some form or the other) will have to moderate their life style or have the recession do it for them. See also The American Dream.

Having said that, to put things in perspective, my driver (in India) — from a typical rural background, but very well informed, casually mentioned about what’s the deal about this news going around about India finding water on the moon? In particular, when they could have spent that much amount of money to connect rivers to bring water to people who don’t have any [here on Earth]? He has a point, but I wouldn’t scuttle one mission for another, just that the water sharing issue unlike that of space exploration is embroiled in politics.

Traditional water catchment / reservoir (நடு முதலைக் குலம்) on outskirts of Madurai.

Above picture zoomed in. Folks going to Kali temple. They're carrying offerings of sprouted grains on their heads.

Click to zoom.

I caught this procession of folks in the distance, on the way back from a visiting a remote rural temple. They are going to the local Kali temple. Usually this is done on every powarnami (full moon day). But this one is special, as it comes right after Navaratri celebrations. They’re carrying mulai-pari (முளை பாரி; pots with sprouted grains; click on the photo to zoom in) on their heads, which after offering to Kali, they’ll let it float off in the water. It’s a way of thanking and seeking blessing for the upcoming cycle of harvest (which happens in Pongal time).

The above is a traditional water catchment, eco-friendly (as opposed to today’s trend of uprooting the local ecosystem by building dams). Stretches for a few kilometers. You can gauge how old it is from the name itself – “nadu muthalai kulam” (”நடு முதலைக்  குலம்” – “lake where crocodiles are found in the middle”). There are no crocodiles today, nor do I think there were any even in the last 50 years. Considering that this season the monsoons have been meagre in Tamil Nadu, catchments like this are their (and our) life bread and butter.

It’s a simple temple, consisting of just the silai (சிலை, murthi/idol) of the God built around the natural water spout, with water appearing to come from below the feet of the silai. There are a few other silai’s like the above siva lingam (which is also different – in that it has two snakes on the side, forming a heart-shaped hood over the lingam). Unfortunately the photo of the main silai with the water spout didn’t come out well.

Next to the temple, is a huge snake pit, that gets covered with thousands of eggs by those propitiating the nagas, during powarnami (full-moon days). Just wish that one day people will have enough sense to realize they’d probably get more good karma by donating a thousand eggs to feed the hungry, like in orphanages or homeless shelters (or at least donate it to the temple, and have the temple give it to the needy). For that matter the  tons of milk, ghee, buttermilk they waste in archanai’s every year in most temples.

Nagas (snake beings) are considered to be a race of beings that preceded humankind, and still exist, but are now in a different realm. In many Hindu faiths, all beings (animals, plants, even sun, moon, etc) are said to have a conscious element, and serve as a connection to the spirit world (or if you don’t wish to anthropomorphize it, different stratas of consciousness or energies), and hence they are all revered and sometimes propitiated for relief of various ailments.

These beings, who at least in theory, in their own desire to seek God, unconditionally help beings who propitiate them. Or another way of looking it, for those who are not used with multivalency, one can just consider them as appendages of God; i.e. God made more accessible to people, via only certain aspects.

In fact, from the worship of the ganas (the bunch of spirits/attendants of Shiva; in Tamil Saiva traditions known as siva-ganarghal, சிவகணர்கள்), in particular the leader of the ganas, Ganapathy, arose the cult of gana or Ganapathy worshippers, which is now a diety that is part of most popular Hindu faiths.

Nagas in particular are known to help people who have difficulty bearing children (also known as naga-dosham). Personally I don’t believe in it, but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that in the end, all these currents keep us from straying too far from being in touch with the deeper Reality that underlies life, the universe, and everything.

While common society endows the title of “great warrior” on war heroes, these spiritual traditions recognized only those who had mastered themselves as the true warriors or victors. That is, not a conquest of lands and peoples, but the “conquest” and the mastery of one’s inner self. For these people, the pursuit of the Spirit, the spiritual path, was not for the weak, wavering, or half-hearted, but required the stealth and determination of a warrior. They were also critical thinkers well beyond their time, even by today’s measure. I can only imagine how intense their meditations had to be considering the layers of conditionings we mortals would have to shed to reach such heights of self-actualization. They took the most direct path, walking on the razors edge.

This is not limited to just the Mahaviras of the Samanars, but such direct paths can also be found in the traditions of the Siddhars, Aghoris, Nagas, the Native Americans (the spirit masters, medicine men/women, shamans, and naguals), the wiccans and pagans of pre-Christian Europe, the Aboriginals of Australia, Siberia, Mongolia, and so on.

The other parallel tradition and equally vigorous tradition, along with the Samanars, in Tamil Nadu that flourished in that time period was that of the Siddhars. The Siddhars, aimed at the perfection of the body (unlike other paths that did not put much importance on the physical body). This is not as in building form, but in activating certain energy elements in the body (kundalini chakras). By doing so, the Siddhar merges the body-spiritual (not the body-material) with the Atman. It’s probably from this focus on the perfection of the body (including methods for extending youth and longevity, regeneration, healing) arose the tradition of Siddha medicine.

The one book that’s considered the crest of the peacock on the subject of kundalini is Thirumoolar’s Thirumanthiram. I don’t understand 90% of it :), but still doesn’t prevent me from revisiting it every few years. Sometimes I feel maybe it’s Thirumoolar’s idea of playing a big joke on us before he died (maybe yet another way of getting us to churn our souls in different directions and evolve). But then probably not; these sadhus never had a sense of humor. Most Tamil siddha texts are written in current Tamil, but is intentionally uses a mode of conveying things called sandhya basha (or twilight language), which unwinds or reveals itself only to those who ask the right critical questions (and not looking for the “right” answers — which often leads you down the wrong alleys).

Books

• Shiva and the Primordial Tradition – Alain Danielou.
• Aghora – Robert E. Svoboda
• The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar – T. N. Ganapathy (poorly written, but informative and enlightening)
• Thirumantiram – Thirumoolar

{ Jainism (and Buddhism) flourished in Tamil Nadu and contributed greatly to its classical prose literature, but by around 7AD Jainism (and the Samanar tradition) lost its following when they started becoming fundamentalist. For example, as humanistic as Jainism was it had its share of untouchability (against non-Jains). In fact even the “sound” of a Shaivite chanting his mantras entering the ears of a Jain would be considered as “pollution” and the Jain would undergo severe purgation rituals. As a result Jains created many Jain-only areas, resulting in resentment among the locals, nor did it gain following. As with any faith, when the faith becomes less tolerant, i.e. more fundamentalist, it loses its appeal (at least among intelligent sensible people/cultures :)). In fact Jainism started becoming so puritanical, that it resulted in severe conflicts with other faiths (particularly the other dominent faith at that time – that of Shaivism), that it even resulted in Jains being faced with brutal persecution.}

A few months later, a friend called me for a walkabout tour of the area (being organized by the Archaeological Society of India, and guided by one retired professor of Arts & Humanities of Madurai Kamaraj University, Prof. Venkatraman).

Little did I know that there were so many gems like this all around the locality where I live. Searching the internet for more details came up with nothing. When I asked Prof. Venkatraman, even though he was walking treasure trove of knowledge on Samanars, he had not a single publication he could refer me to. Apparently like many teachers of previous generations, they transmitted knowledge in the oral tradition (I guess universities back then were free from pressures of “publish or perish”).

The great oral tradition of transmission of knowledge might be gone, but I guess replaced by internet! I’ve added these here as time permits.

Sites

• Site 1 (Vadapallanji)
• Site 2 (Keellakuyilakudi)
• Site 3 (Keellakuyilakudi)
• Site 4 (Oothukulli)
• Site 5
• Site 6

Map: 9° 56′ 44.93″ N, 77° 59′ 17.94″ E, 168m

Location: Oothukulli (ஊத்துக்குழி), 12km east of Madurai city, Tamil Nadu, India

Main passage.

A lone samanar idol. Located on cliff side a few meters west of the main entry.

+9° 56′ 45.00″, +77° 59′ 15.60″, 187m

The Samanar is almost always shown seated with a multi-tier mandalam over their head (in contrast to the Buddha who is shown with an orb or halo around his head), and juxtoposed by devas (the lesser gods or celesitial beings) and apsaras (celestial nymphs who try to distract the Samanar from his concentration). The row of recessed blocks on top of the Samanar is fairly common, for holding oil lamps.

Shrine on top of Samanar hill.

+9° 56′ 45.60″, +77° 59′ 17.40″, 222m

Must be some really crazy Christian zealots to really go out of the way to climb this hill and vandalize it (and that too, this particular hill marked as a heritage site by the Archaeological Society of India).

Hallelujah! another Jesus!

Map: 9° 55′ 19.20″ N, 78° 2′ 47.40″ E, 152m

Location: Keellakuyilakudi (கீழக்குயிலக்குடி), 8km east of Madurai city, Tamil Nadu, India

Slightly hidden away on the side of the hill of Site 2. It’s about 10min walk from the lotus pond. To get to it, walk past the lotus pond, past the Hindu temple, past the banyan trees (i.e. the banyan trees away from the lotus pond area), and after a short 20m or so, you’ll see an opening of steps between two big boulders. A climb of about 120 steps will get you to the mouth of the cave.

Lotus Pond

Path to cave.

Cave

Mahavira

Cave entrance.

Four mahavira's including a female mahavira (rightmost). Keep in mind that this was at a time when other cultures (in particular in the Middle-East religions) were still persecuting anyone who dared profess a connection to god (that was reserved only for their "prophet") -- and it was even more tragic for females -- who were treated as heretics.