Mahishasuramardini Stotram

Alfred Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’

Alfred Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’

Alfred Tennyson is one of the great poets of English Literature. In one of his poems titled ‘Ulysses’, he draws upon the ancient hero of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. (“Ulysses” is the Roman form of the Greek “Odysseus”)

Ulysses was the ruler of the kingdom of Ithaca. Ulysses finds himself restless in Ithaca and is driven by the longing to gain experience of the world.

This poem is written as a dramatic monologue i.e. the entire poem is spoken by a single character, whose identity is revealed by his own words. The lines are in blank verse which serves to impart a fluid and natural quality to Ulysses’s speech. “Ulysses” deals with the desire to reach beyond the limits of one’s field of vision and the mundane details of everyday life.

It is said that this poem also concerns the poet’s own personal journey. It was composed in the first few weeks after Tennyson learned of the death of his dear college friend Arthur Henry Hallam in 1833. This poem is stated to be an elegy for a deeply cherished friend. Ulysses, who symbolizes the grieving poet, proclaims his resolution to push onward in spite of the awareness that “death closes all” (line 51). The poem’s hero longs to flee the tedium of daily life “among these barren crags” (line 2) and to enter a mythical dimension “beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars” (lines 60–61). The poem’s final line, “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,” came to serve as a motto for the poet’s Victorian contemporaries.

I had studied this poem in my college. This was prescribed for the elocution competition in college and I took part in that competition.

Here are some beautiful quotes:

‘How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! 

As tho' to breathe were life!’

‘To follow knowledge like a sinking star, 

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.’ 

‘Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old; 

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; 

Death closes all: but something ere the end, 

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,’ 

‘Come, my friends, 

'T is not too late to seek a newer world. 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 

Of all the western stars, until I die.’ 

‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’

ULYSSES

Alfred Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king, 

By this still hearth, among these barren crags, 

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole 

Unequal laws unto a savage race, 

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink 

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd 

Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those 

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when 

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; 

For always roaming with a hungry heart 

Much have I seen and known; cities of men 

And manners, climates, councils, governments, 

Myself not least, but honour'd of them all; 

And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 

I am a part of all that I have met; 

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' 

Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades 

For ever and forever when I move. 

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! 

As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life 

Were all too little, and of one to me 

Little remains: but every hour is saved 

From that eternal silence, something more, 

A bringer of new things; and vile it were 

For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 

And this gray spirit yearning in desire 

To follow knowledge like a sinking star, 

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. 

         This is my son, mine own Telemachus, 

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,— 

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil 

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild 

A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees 

Subdue them to the useful and the good. 

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere 

Of common duties, decent not to fail 

In offices of tenderness, and pay 

Meet adoration to my household gods, 

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. 

         There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: 

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners, 

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me— 

That ever with a frolic welcome took 

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old; 

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; 

Death closes all: but something ere the end, 

Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: 

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep 

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 

'T is not too late to seek a newer world. 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 

Of all the western stars, until I die. 

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' 

We are not now that strength which in old days 

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Importance of Western Ghats

This is an article in the Deccan Herald of today, the 2nd September 2018. It is stated that the Western Ghats is one of the 'hottest of hotspots' of biological diversity in the world. The author has stated that the destruction of the Ghats will amplify and aggravate the effects of natural disasters as has been seen recently in Kerala and Kodagu in Karnataka.  It is said that the natural disasters are due to climate change triggered inter alia by destruction of forests.

Helium

Helium

I just read with interest on 25^th August an article in THE DECCAN HERALD by Shri C Sivaram of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru. It is about the gas Helium. It is stated that Helium is the second lightest element after hydrogen, or twice as heavy as hydrogen. Hydrogen gas constitutes three-fourths or 75% of the chemical composition of the universe and Helium is the second most abundant chemical element after hydrogen constituting 24% of the chemical composition of the universe. All other elements make up the remaining 1% to 2% of the chemical composition of the universe. He says that it is surprising that although humans were aware of and indeed making use of several chemical elements like iron, copper, gold, silver, etc early in history, the discovery of helium happened only 150 years ago and that of hydrogen by Henry Cavendish about 100 years earlier, in 1766.

Helium was discovered in the gaseous atmosphere surrounding the Sun by the French astronomer Pierre Janssen, who detected a bright yellow line in the spectrum of the solar chromosphere during an eclipse in 1868; this line was initially assumed to represent the element sodium. That same year the English astronomer Joseph Norman Lockyer observed a yellow line in the solar spectrum that did not correspond to the known D1 and D2 lines of sodium, and so he named it the D3 line. Lockyer concluded that the D3 line was caused by an element in the Sun that was unknown on Earth; he and the chemist Edward Frankland used the Greek word for sun, hēlios, in naming the element. The British chemist Sir William Ramsay discovered the existence of helium on Earth in 1895. Ramsay obtained a sample of the uranium-bearing mineral cleveite, and, upon investigating the gas produced by heating the sample, he found that a unique bright yellow line in its spectrum matched that of the D3 line observed in the spectrum of the Sun; the new element of helium was thus conclusively identified. In 1903 Ramsay and Frederick Soddy further determined that helium is a product of the spontaneous disintegration of radioactive substances.

Shri Sivaram says that “very recently, in May 2018, helium was detected for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. This is WASP 107b who’s atmosphere is being stripped by it’s host star. The planet’s atmosphere is sweltering hot at 500 degrees Celsius and extends to over a 1,000 km. This has enabled an excited state of helium to be identified. The planet has the size of Jupiter but is bloated up so that its average density is much less than water”. 

Commenting about its usage, he says “Helium on earth has been put to several uses. It liquefies at four degrees Kelvin and is used in cryogenics to cool complex systems to very low temperatures. Helium becomes a superfluid at two degrees Kelvin. The Large Hadron Collider uses large amounts of liquid helium in its vacuum chambers and huge superconductor magnets. Helium is also used in balloons.

Hydrogen was earlier used in airships, even to cross the Atlantic, like in the Zeppelins, 80 years ago. But the explosion of the Hindenburg in 1938 at the end of its voyage put an end to this mode of air travel. Helium being inert is not flammable and is currently used in airships to transport freight. It is also used in diving equipment, industrial processes like welding and, of course, in large-scale cooling. It is feared that the supply of helium may run out in the next few decades, although new sources are being discovered”.  

Global warming

Global Warming

Global warming and the consequential climate change is one of the prominent issues which I have mentioned in my story ‘Yathni’s Travel to Kailash’.

In the month of August in 2013, the then Prime Minister of India dedicated to the nation the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited’s second unit at Tiruchirapalli and Piping Plant in Thirumayam near Pudukottai. Speaking on the occasion Dr. Manmohan Singh said that in our country, more than 50 percent of power comes from coal-based generation, which is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. Praising Bharat Heavy Electricals for taking initiatives for the development of ultra super critical technology in line with our mission for deployment of clean coal technologies, he said that India is among the countries that would be most seriously impacted by the consequences of climate change and that we need to develop ways and means to reduce our carbon foot-print through technological innovation.

But, the more interesting news which I read at that time was the one that was published in various newspapers during that period about the studies conducted by the researchers from University of California, Berkeley. It was stated that the researchers analyzed 60 studies on climate change, ultimately concluding that Earth is expected to warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 and that more human conflict is a likely outcome of increased climate change. It is said that the researchers explored the connection between weather and violence in various parts of the world from about 10,000 BCE to the present day to calculate the risk that violence would rise under hotter and wetter conditions. They say that the rise in temperatures and precipitation is likely to result in more personal violence and social upheaval.

Is the reason for human conflict solely due to climate change?

The study says that while climate is not the sole or primary cause of violence, it undeniably exacerbates existing social and interpersonal tension in all societies, regardless of wealth or stability.

I wonder as to whether instead of global warming affecting human behaviour, can human behaviour arrest global warming? Can we say that if positive traits of human behaviour like love, compassion, ahimsa, contentment etc are nurtured, we may not destroy forests and lakes, pollute rivers and abuse nature thereby preventing global warming?

Can it be the otherway round?

Sir Francis Bacon

Reading and writing becomes an important part of our life from a very young age. As Sage Thiruvalluvar says in Thirukkural, the numbers and the letters are like the two eyes of Man.

எண்ணென்ப ஏனை எழுத்தென்ப இவ்விரண்டும்
கண்ணென்ப வாழும் உயிர்க்கு.

(eN enpa Enai ezhuththenpa ivviraNdum
kaN enpa vaazhum uyirkku)

During school and college days, everybody gets involved with reading and writing. But after that, when we enter into jobs and get involved in family life, the process of reading and writing gets considerably reduced for most of us.

In so far as I am concerned, having worked in the Government of India secretariat for more than 35 years, reading and writing had almost become a part of my life. And, out of reading and writing, the latter was more important in secretariat functions because it was the principal form of communication in office. It so happened that after my retirement from service, I clinged on to writing!

Talking about reading and writing, I remember the essay titled ‘Of Studies’ by Sir Francis Bacon which I studied when I was in college. The essay is given below:

OF STUDIES.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one: but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar: they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend "Abeunt studia in mores;" nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises; bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head, and the like; so, if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again; if his wit be no apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are "Cymini sectores;" if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyer's cases: so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

It is said that Sir Francis Bacon lived during the period from 1561 to 1626 AD. He was one of the major political figures of his time. He served in the court of Elizabeth I and ultimately became Lord Chancellor under James I in 1617. He was a scholar, wit and statesman. He wrote widely on politics, philosophy and science. His essays, numbering about 60 were on diverse range of subjects, such as death and marriage, ambition and atheism. His prose is vibrant and mostly in epigrammatic form.

To summarise what Bacon has said on Studies, I may reproduce the following quotes:

·         Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability.

·         The general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned.

·         Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them.

·         Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

·         Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

·         Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.