'Annam Bahu Kurvita’

 

I have been an intermittent blogger, and engage in social media platforms regularly. One of the topics on which I have been consistently posting has been on Indian textiles, especially sarees. Many a times friends ask me seriously, as well as sarcastically as to how many sarees I own. Hardly does anyone me ask how many books I own. I do post on books regularly, sharing reviews, books bought, read, books encountered at the library. While saree posts sometimes get a decent traction, book posts are generally overlooked. During Deepavali when my friend asked me about the Hindu festivals, economy and the interconnectedness, one book came to my mind. It is about food, the Indian concept of anna, donating food anna dana – Annam Bahu Kurvita by Jitendra Bajaj and M.D.Srinivas. It is not a book that I have read cover to cover, but read through pages, passages, shlokas and their meanings given there from time to time. It is a book that has had a deep impact on me. It is also a book which I feel is not very well known. That is when I got this idea of doing regular book posts. To introduce, to discuss and share.

Annam Bahu Kurvita was published by the Centre for Policy Studies, Madras in 1996. I had heard about a large conference that was convened with respected acharyas from various mathas participating, but I only got to know Shri Bajaj, and Shri Srinivas later and had bought a copy of the book from CPS. Many of the acharyas have given their benedictory messages that is published in the book. The idea of growing abundance of food, the dictat to share food in abundance has been mentioned from the Vedas to Upanishads, puranas, epics and it is part of literature as well as life of every Hindu. “Annam Bahu Kurvita. Tadvratam” … the dictat in the Taittriyopanishad forms the crux and the title of this book. “Endeavour so that there be a great abundance of food. That is the inviolable discipline of mankind.” Look at the word used, vrata. Growing and giving abundant food, driven as the most important dharma. I thought of this book in the context of festivals, you know why – we dismiss festivals many a times saying “oh I do not believe in rituals” or celebrate them just as a holiday or enjoyment. Aren’t festivals the yagnas of the modern yuga? How we dismiss the yagnas as some wasteful rituals, a burden certain class had imposed without ever trying to understand what they were supposed to be? The same we are doing with the festivals now. Try to undermine their value, their context, the linkage of dharma, artha and the multiplier effect on economy as economists would like to call. Festivals we want to be muted, cut down on the spending in weddings, yet at the same time latching on to western imports like “Joy of Giving Week”, “Daan Utsav”. Many a times we are told that Hindus don’t do charity, and may be sometimes they do it only for some religious purposes. What we do not understand is that every Hindu householder even unwillingly would be doing many ‘danas’ during a lifetime. Every celebration at home, every death ritual has the “giving” in built into it. That is how it was even with the Yagnas. This book opened my eyes to look at the Yagnas as growing and sharing of abundance.

When I read the chapters on the Yagnas in Ramayana and the Mahabharata I was enlightened. Many who have looked at the periodic Kumbh Mela festivals not only as spiritual congregations but also as driver of economic activity as millions congregate. This also takes us back to our puranas and the Vedic Yagnas, don’t they. Were they not driving the economy too, showering prosperity on the citizens? Yudhishtira’s Rajasuya Yagna in the Mahabharata. He wants to spend the riches he had accumulated, and performs the Yagna and the result: the gifts, the honours, and the satisfaction of the deities, the citizens, and the citizens included people of all varnas. Similar are the descriptions of Ashwamedha Yagna in the Ramayana. Today we may not have kings to perform such large Yajnas, nor have Grihastas who can perform many Yajnas, but we have our festivals.

 This is a very valuable book, very easy to understand, with clear translation of every shloka provided by the authors. An important read … we get carried away by many who deride our shastras, put down the value of festivals and rituals. I am sure this book would open our minds to understand our shastras in a new light, and valuing the rituals and festivals.

I will end here with the story of King Sveta written about elaborately in the book. He gave away precious and rich gifts, but refused to give food and water saying they are too small for a king of his eminence to gift. After his death, he passed on to the heavens and there suffered from constant hunger and thirst. Sage Vasishta sees his condition and tells him:

 “By giving away gold and precious stones men come to enjoy great luxuries.  But it is by giving food that they get complete satisfaction. And, O king, food is what you did not give. For, you did not find it to be of any significant”.

This is an important pointer for our rulers, administrators too. I have heard a former finance minister of the country once say “India has always been a poor country”. I was not angry, was only amused at his blend of ignorance and arrogance. He seemed to neither know history, or how to measure our abundance. Imagine if such policy makers were to rule this country, where food, where abundance? At least for that sake of not repeating the past mistakes of ignoring growing of food, ignoring our shastras which entailed growing and sharing more food, one should read a book like this that can guide us through the proper path.