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Editorial DeskAbhaya Raj Joshi Jairam SeshadriJayeetha PakrashiJyothi SriramKajal SabherwalPretika KhannaSarath ChandraSowmya SFollow Life 360* on:

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FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Rise above LABELS!In many ways, it is apt that Chennai is the launching pad for Chennai LIFE 360*. After all,history shows that Chennai has been at the forefront many progressive forces of the Spiritthat continue to ring positively today!In this inaugural issue, we who form the editorial team of Chennai LIFE 360* would liketo make our mission clear:We aim to distil wisdom from every stream of thought (whether religious or philosophicalor not!) without giving it any label other than the labels of ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Compassion’.We believe that every religion’s core values aim to unite humanity.In an age when communalism, factionalism, fundamentalism and strife induced directlyfrom and merely because human beings were born into a particular religion, we, the edi-torial team, believe the time has come, quite simply, to rise above labels such as Christians,Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs.Be proud of your customs and culture, but remember those customs and culture mustserve as stepping stones to embracing other cultures and other viewpoints as being equallyvalid in the goal toward unity.And unity (oneness) is the final solution for all of today’s problems. If you are one withthe one you wish to steal from, how can you steal? Can you steal from yourself? If you areone with the other, there is no ‘other’ to hate.Every living, sentient being is infused with a Spirit that is the Life Force. When we die thatSpirit leaves us or we would cling to the dead bodies of those who have departed. It is thatSpirit that is omnipresent, even in the air that we breathe.Like radio waves that are caught by transistors, we human beings are transistors of thatSpirit. We need to tune ourselves to that Spirit.And if that same Spirit that is within you, is within everyone else, despite you being of adifferent gender, too tall for that glass ceiling, despite you being of a different religion thatrequires you to wear a yarmuckle or a turban, despite you being of a different professionthat requires you to count beans, why not shed these labels, even if only in your solitude,and pick up Chennai LIFE 360 once a week to replenish that soul we call the UniversalSpirit?In this inaugural issue we begin our movement (no less!) by bringing to you several placesof worship of that Spirit in different ways. We also have for you a feature on the rationaleof chanting mantras, a form of prayer that is universal in all religions. And to reaffirm ourtheme of universalism, we peek into the philosophy of Theosophy. And more!The thunder is yours!Enjoy! And if you care to join the movement write to us at ChennaiLIFE360@Life.com The Editorial Team

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A FEAST FOR THE HEART AND MIND!

C O N T E N T S

Cover PagePhotography: AmitBanerjeeEditing: Abhaya Raj Joshi Model: Piyush Rai4-5 The Theosophical Society6-7 Mantras: SenselessSense or Sensible Nonsense Page?

8-9 Near News10 Jewish Jottings11 Full Circle

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The Theosophical Society- a shrine to Their motto:

There is no religion higher t

Photo: Arinda

m Majumder

Chennai Life 360

Universalism

than truth

The Theosophical Society is an international organiza-tion whose objective is Universal brotherhood withoutdistinction. Formed in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky,Henry Steel, Olcott, William, Quan Judge. The foundersarrived in Madras and bought 250 acres of land, thenknown as The Huddleston Gardens, at the price of Rs8500. It is now more famous as Adyar, at the heart ofthe Chennai city.The entire estate is built near the southern bank of theAdyar river. As one gets inside the place, one wouldfind five well sculpted trilithons, which are centuriesold and were brought from a ruined temple, erected atselected spots in the estate by Colonel Olcott.

The belief behind the formation of this society is thatlife and its two basic diversified forms, human and na-ture; are One. The people at the theosophical society are united by acommon purpose: truth and finding out the meaningand purpose of existence. They do this through study,reflection, self responsibility and service. The instituteremains open for a period of three months from No-vember to January. The society runs several courses on the study of reli-gion, life, existence and nature. Several aspirants fromall over the world come to study here.

140 years have passed with thefounding of the Theosophical So-ciety in Adyar. Yet the principlesand the message still rings true!

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“Human and natureare one”

- Jyothi Sriram and Jayeeta Pakrasi

Mantras: Senseless Senseor Sensible Nonsense?Sound Vibrations can alter the physics of reality. If the vibrations emanate from the basis of good andholy thought, alteration of the physics of reality is altogether positive, writes Jairam Seshadri.

Question:

Who uttered the Buddha’s name?’

Answer:

The Buddha uttered the Buddha’sname.

Mantras! Invocations, in a language, often quite alien! Mantras, chanted in yoga classes or by monks in saffron robes in re-mote hill-swathed monasteries.The words tumble out, sounding like pebbles slowly rolling in a tincanand are often dismissed out of hand.A Zen Koan posed in the form of a question and answer goes likethis: Question: ‘Who uttered the Buddha’s name?’ Answer: The Buddha uttered the Buddha’s name. Everyone is a po-tential Buddha; everyone - irrespective of their background and re-ligion (or lack thereof) - can attain to and experience higher statesof ‘Buddhahood’.Mantras are the route to such higher states. At the outset, chantingmantras is not exclusive to any one religion. The Sufi chants, the callof the muezzin in Islam, praying the Rosary in Christianity, cantilla-tion in Judaism, are mantras that span the spectrum of religions. Is there a rationale behind chanting of mantras? In this age of seek-ing a plausible reason especially by those who are educated, wouldspreading the rationale, if any, make chanting mantras more main-stream? This article aims to look at the chanting of mantras throughthe lenses of reason and is the first in a series of articles on the sub-ject.There are several scientific experiments conducted on the effect ofsound and its vibrations that shed reason on the benefits of chantingmantras.Some of the works and their results are highlighted here to

reflect the effect of sound vibrations (caused by chanting mantras)on matter.One of these is the physics experiment (memories of high schoolsurely floods our consciousness) that establishes the connection be-tween sound waves and physical matter and the ability of soundwaves to cause alterations in the physical world. It involves two tuning-forks of the same note or frequency; vibratingone tuning-fork (striking it on the table) and holding it vertically bythe stem next to the other, non-vibrating tuning-fork (also held ver-tically) will cause the non-vibrating fork to begin vibrating magically The sound waves from the vibrating tuning fork activate elementsin the non-vibrating tuning fork causing it to vibrate. This is knownas ‘sympathetic resonance’ in Physics.

Sound waves – something we cannot see, feel, touch,causes a physical change to occur without physical con-tact.In 1967, Hans Jenny, a Swiss doctor, placed fine sand onsensitive membranes which were made to vibratethrough the effect of human voice. With pleasing sounds, such as the music of Mozart,there appeared pleasing shapes and patterns.Jenny made use of an invention of his own, the tono-scope, for these experiments and established thatwords and symbols have the power to influence andtransform physical reality.

A Buddhist monk with prayer beadsPhoto: Wikipedia

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Vibrating one tuning-fork (strik-ing it on the table) and holding itvertically by the stem next to theother, non-vibrating tuning-fork(also held vertically) will causethe non-vibrating fork to begin vi-brating magically.

“Every human cell, according to him, had its own frequencyand that a number of cells created a new frequency in harmony with the rest...”Vibrations that are set in motion when chanting mantras produce a resonance that re-aligns our nervous system. Thenerves of the human body are subtle, extremely fragile, delicate. They collectively constitute our mental make-up.Positive vibrations from mantras attune us to states of calmness. Countless studies have been performed scanning brains orindividuals who are chanting and meditating. The scans

reveal that the mind in a state or meditation is more calmthan when asleep. Calm rivers alone make their riverbeds vis-ible. A calm mind, like a placid river reveals solutions to problemsand puts the world in perspective. In coming issues we will delve into what higher states meanand why these so called higher states are worth attaining tothrough the regular chanting of mantras.Till then Happy Chanting in whatever way path you have cho-sen!

Another interesting phenomenonin his scientific experiments wasthat when he took a vibratingplate with liquid and tilted it, theliquid did not run off the plate andyield to gravitational influence,but stayed on the plate and contin-ued to develop new shapes.This, according to Jenny, was theeffect of anti-gravitational quali-ties, created by vibrations.Science has proven that the pull ofgravity on our bodies ages us. It istherefore reasonable to extrapo-late that mantras through their vi-brations may slow down the agingprocess.Jenny went on to state that every-thing we see in the physical andphenomenal world is the result ofvibrations even going so far as tostate that “biological evolutionwas a result of vibrations, and thatthe nature of the vibrations, deter-mined the ultimate outcome.Tulsi Prayer beads Photo: Wikipedia

A Christian rosary Photo: Wikipedia7

ON A HOLY TRAILOur correspondents Kajal Sabherwal and Pretika Khanna take you totwo of the oldest religious sanctums of the city.

The thousand lights mosque, in AnnaSalai in Chennai is one of the largest inthe country and is known to be a place ofpilgrimage for Muslims. Built by nawab umdat-ul umrah in 1810,there is an interesting story behind thename. It is said that 1000 lamps neededto be lit in order to illuminate the assembly hall and from this, it derivedits name. However, there are others ofthe belief that the lights were providedby the Indian National Congress to marktheir first visit to the city of Madras.Speaking of architecture, the mosque is a

medieval architectural style buildingwith multi domes and spearingminarets. Before redesigning the placeas a mosque, it was a shrine for a longtime. Holy quotations from the Quranhave been inscribed on the walls of themosque. The hall was built around 1810 by ascion of Wallajah family, which ownedmuch property of the place in the area – for the shia Muslims to assembleduring moharram. A mosque was addedto the hall in the same five acre propertyin 1981 with two tall minarets and five

inward curving domes depicting modernwest Asian influence.It has a exhilarating structure and the average height of the minarets is about64 feet above the ground.There is a main hall where the men offertheir prayers and a separate room forwomen. There are two rooms on the second floor which are known as Bargah.Being a famous place for worship amongMuslims in south India, the thousandlights mosque is still a scene of religiousactivity during Moharram.

L to R (Clockwise): The main mosque (top left), Inscriptions in the main hall (Topright), Minaret with the anoouncement speaker that calls for daily prayer (Bottomright) and outside the main hall where the thousand lights used to burn (Bottom left) Photos: Kajal Sabherwal and Pretika KhannaStory of the Thousand Lamps

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The Armenian Church in Chennai isone of the oldest churches in India.This church was built in 1712 andreconstructed in 1772. The church is dedi-cated to Mother Mary. The church is lo-cated on the Armenian Street in Parry inChennai. The church has six distinctivebells that have been manufactured in Lon-don. They are now 300 years old. t was in the early 17th century that Armen-ian traders arrived in Chennai from Iran.The traders who came to India were notfrom Armenia but were from Iran and Per-sia. Around the 1950’s, they left the cityand migrated mostly to Calcutta (nowKolkata). The reasons for this include thecoming in of British colonisers, internalfeuds and rising taxes on their properties.The Armenian Church Committee in Cal-cutta is the one that still maintain thechurch. The church is now merely a heritage siteand has almost no worshippers anymore.The only time when the church conductsservice is when a group of Armenians fromKolkata travel to Chennai. During thesetrips, a priest accompanies them as well.These events are open to all. Mr. Trevor Alexander, is the caretaker ofthe church. He opens the gates of this beau-

tiful sanctum between 9 am to 2:30 pm. Itis only between this that visitors are al-lowed to witness the beauty of this monu-ment. He has been the caretaker of thischurch since the last caretaker retired adecade ago. “I ring the bells every Sundayat 9:30 and everyday I light a candle in thechurch, so that the church is still alive” saysMr. Alexander. There are less than a handful of Armeniansin Chennai now. In fact, the number is aslow as two. They too have moved to Chen-nai from Iran for educational purposes.Hence, there have been no meetings inthe church for the last 15 years. Last year, the church celebrated300 years of the Azdarar. TheAzdarar was the first news-paper to be published byan Armenian in 1794from Chennai. The grave ofthe publisher isalso in thischurch. Though Chennaiwas once aflourishing res-idence for Ar-menians,

there are now no local Armenians left. Kolkata has the most num-ber of Armenians in the country. The care-taker, Mr Trevor Alexander jokes, “Thereare no Armenians left in this city. That’swhy they wanted me to become the care-taker even though I’m not Armenian.”Armenians were traditionally ortho-dox christiansbut today, thischurch ismerely atouristdestina-tion.

L to R (Clockwise): The Armenian Church built in1712 (Left), The main minaret that also houses thevinatge bells (Top right), An aerial view of thechurch (Right and centre), A replica of the Azdarar.The first newspaper to be published by an Armenian (Bottom).

The Church that Awaits its Followers

Photos: Rohit James

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Jewish jottingsINTERSECTIONAn over-whelming passion for exploring a religion can manifest in myriad ways. In S.N.Thyagarajan’scase, it manifested through the written word.

PHOTO: S.N.TH

YAGARAJAN

S.N.Thyagarajan, whose debut book will documentJudaism in India.

As S. N. Thyagarajan, 24, answers the phone call after his dinner, his voice is neither ele-vated nor tensed, but carefully measured. However, his delight becomes evident when theconversation turns to Judaism, the subject of his debut book, which will be self-publishedearly next year. He clearly states that the book is not about the religious philosophies thatJudaism seeks to preach, but a memoir of sorts. In an interview with Sowmya.S, Thya-garajan, a native of Coimbatore and an advocate at the District Court, Coimbatore, talksabout the enriching experience of exploring Judaism, of the need to document this experi-ence and on finding a common ground between Judaism and Hinduism. Excerpts from theinterview...

*Hailing from a conservative Tamil Brahmin family, how did you become inter-ested in Judaism?In 2007, I saw Jeremy Piven, a British Jewish actor, in National Geographic (Channel).He was touring India and visited the Paradesi Jewish Synagogue in Cochin, Kerala. I feltattracted to a civilization that is now more or less lost in India. When you find out thatsuch a religion exists in your country, the first thing that you do is to find out what theyhave left for you. So, I first visited the Jewish synagogues in India. That’s when my ex-ploration began. *What made this exploration unique and worthy of being documented?The Jews have been living in India for the past 2600 years. It is the story of a community,which is perceived as foreign, by Indians. They might have come from a different coun-try, but they are Indian at heart. Their struggle to establish an identity is very evident.There are no written records of their arrival or the Jewish way of life. They are like anextinct species, as many of them have been leaving for Israel. I want to document thembefore the civilization disappears completely. Also, they have lived here for so long andthere must have been influences of our culture (on theirs). My idea is to explore themand see if there is a meeting point between the two cultures. *Through your exploration, did you find a common ground between Judaism andthe Hindu way of life?Judaism does not believe in idol worship. They worship the Torah and recite slokas fromtheir holy book, which is basically worshipping knowledge. It may be possible that theywanted to respect knowledge and interpreted the Torah as the Lord, but, in a way, it isrespecting the knowledge of someone. Arya Samaj is more or less the same; it’s againstidol worship. It also believes in Vedas and Knowledge and that’s basically what Judaismdoes. Be it Hinduism, Christianity or Judaism: in all of them, the idea of God is to teachyou to lead a good life. That’s evident in Bhagavad Gita and Torah’s proses. But, there isa lack of understanding (of this concept) and we have not interpreted it properly. Peopleare trying to cash in on this (ignorance) everywhere: be it at temples or at the Wall ofJerusalem. Even if you download a single (religious) app on your mobile phone, you geta million requests to donate to them. They attempt to show you (the path to) peace(through religion), which just dilutes the whole concept.

The Torah, or Jewish Written Law, consists of the five books of the Hebrew Bible - known more commonly to non-Jews as the "OldTestament" - that were given by G-d to Moses on Mount Sinai and include within them all of the biblical laws of Judaism. The Torahis also known as the Chumash, Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. The word "Torah" has multiple meanings including: A scrollmade from kosher animal parchment, with the entire text of the Five Books of Moses written on it; the text of the Five Books ofMoses, written in any format; and, the term "Torah" can mean the entire corpus of Jewish law. This includes the Written and theOral Law.Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Written_Law.html

THE TORAH

PHOTO: http:/

/commons.wik

imedia.org/w

iki/File:Torah2

.jpg#filelinks

The scroll containing Torah’s proses, which is theHoly Book for Jews across the world.

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FULL CIRCLE MUST READS

There is only one truth, only mendescribe it in different ways. ”A list of the top 4 books that you mustlay your hands on this month

A History of God:The 4,000 YearQuest of Judaism,Christianity andIslamBy Karen ArmstrongRs. 377Random House

Many Lives,Many MastersBy Dr Brian WeissRs. 212Little Brown BookGroupThe Search ThatSeeks YouBy SangamithraAmudha, APJ AbdulKalamRs. 164Random House

Is God An Illu-sion: The greatdebate scienceand spiritualityBy Deepak Chopra &Leonard MlodinowRs. 339Rider

”

- Rig Veda

In Search of Roots and Identity : Yaadhum

Yaadhum, a documentary by S, Anwar isa journey to trace Tamil Muslim roots.The idea of the film emerged from apaper S. Anwar presented, “Tamil Mus-lims: The Untold story” at a nationalseminar. Yaadhum which means ‘all’ or‘everything’ depicts the close relation-ship between Muslims and other com-munities. The main idea is to break thestereotypical Muslim image. Accordingto S Anwar, Muslim community is highlydiversified with a different history andculture. Anwar through his documen-

tary points out that Islam came to thesouth way before it made its presencefelt in the North. The spice trade that ex-isted between the Arabs and the Indiansin the south asserts that Islam in southis as contemporary as Arabia. It has in-corporated many incidents that conveythat Islam in the state imbibed local tra-dition and culture.The documentaryportrays that the natives were forcefullyconverted to Islam, contrary to this be-lief, the evolution of the community wasgradual and has different facet to it.

Finding your Religious Identity

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a fantasy adventure novel published in2001. The story is of Piscine Patel, nick-named Pi and his adventures as a

teenager. A mystical journey of faithfulexploration with a fascinating portrayalof human-animal interactions, Life of Piis Pi’s journey into the world of misad-ventures. Son of a zoo owner, Pi is ayoung teenage boy who practicesHinduism, Christianity and Muslimfaith. Our focus is drawn to Pi’s experi-ences of his family, animals and mostimportantly questioning his faith. Pi’sparents being secularists with ab-solutely no interest in religion, he isforced to question his faith. Althoughhe thinks that Jesus ministry can’t holda candle to the exotic adventures ofHindu god, his love seems important. Pibeing Hindu, finds himself attracted toChristianity and Islam. He also findsIslam to be a religion of brotherhoodand devotion. The urge to question hisfaith, refuses pi to give up his multipathpath of loving god.

-By Kajal SabherwalS. Anwar A snapshot from the documentary

Photo: Flipkart

Photo: Flipkart

- Kajal Sabherwal

Photo: Two Ci

rcles

Photo: Youtub

e

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A Rising Angel

Intellectually, Wisdom is at the top of the heap, over Data, Information, Knowledge and Intelligence!For Intelligence, Knowledge, Information, Data can all be used to divide humanity. Wisdom alonestands supremely embedded to Unity, which as we mentioned in our Editorial is the Final Solution!Emotionally, Compassion stands at the top of the heap over like, pleasure, attraction, affection, love.For compassion seeks no return. True love too seeks no return, but is usually associated between indi-viduals; Compassion, on the other hand, is universal, only seeks to give. It is an embrace of all that is sentient whether in need or not. It is the primordial, original state.And so we bring these together, in our Logo, qualities if embodied, represent the culmination ofprogress, represents the pinnacle of human qualities, represents the Angel of the movement we atLIFE 360* personify.