Kala Ramesh

The Whole Unseen Third-day Moon

With our summer vacation fast nearing an end, we gather around our grandma for the next installment of her story, one of those she would fabricate out of thin air.

We see her eyes sparkling as she says, “Today I’m going to tell you a story which I heard from my grandma, which she heard from her grandma, who heard it…” We complete the sentence,“From her grandma!”

“How do you know that?” asks Grandma, winking.

Then she begins, “One day sage Adi Shankara, along with his disciples, was coming back after his morning bath in the river. A man, with dirty clothes and long unkempt hair, was coming towards them with four dogs held on leashes. Adi Shankara said, with a swing of his arm, ‘Chandala, move away from my path.’”

The man replied, “Oh, great sage! Whom are you wishing to go away? Is it my physical body made up of food, as yours is, or the immutable intelligence, the ‘atman’ embodied within, which is also within you and is all-pervasive?”

This question stumped Adi Shankara. He realised that all his years of learning and teaching were useless before this weird-looking Chandala and his profound question. It occurred to him that maybe it was Lord Shiva himself who had come to test his understanding of the ancient philosophy of Advaita.

My youngest sister shakes her head, “Ammamma, I don’t understand this story.” My brother chips in, “What is atman? What is advaita?”

dewdrops on the grass. . .
a calmness
in the mountain’s breath

Grandma gives us one of her generous smiles and says, “You are all experts at net surfing—search for these words and we’ll continue the discussion tomorrow.”

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Notes:

Chandala: untouchable
Atman: soul
Advaita: nondualism
Third-day moon (moondram pirai): the first day the moon’s silvery line becomes visible to the naked eye. It is auspicious in South India because it’s like seeing Shiva’s face, wearing the waxing 3rd Crescent as an ornament on His head.

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About the Author

Kala Ramesh is a renowned pioneer in the field of haikai literature in India. Her 2017 book Beyond the Horizon Beyond was awarded a Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize Certificate.

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