Padmasana and other stories!
After two years, I celebrated the Avani Avittam, the sacred thread changing ceremony today. The day coincides with the full moon day of the Shravan month, also celebrated as ‘Raksha Bandhan’ day, when sisters tie Rakhi bands on their brothers’ wrists and renew their bond. However, back on the ‘Unity in diversity,’ South Indian ladies do not celebrate Brothers’ day on Raksha Bandhan day. Instead, they do so on the fourth day of the Pongal festival, offering rice balls of various tastes in the name of their brothers to birds and cows.
Be that as it may, the Avani Avittam requires squatting on the floor on Padmasana, the lotus position, which to an onlooker may appear very simple. My efforts to sit on the floor cross-legged in Padmasana resulted in my locked knees, a tube of ointment and a mouthful from my wife, saying that I must not try such ‘serious’ manoeuvres. There was still a whole week before the sacred thread ceremony, and I began rehearsing my ‘complicated’ yoga posture of sitting on the floor. My pet, Choco, was more curious than my house chef, the latter reminding me of my wife’s warning not to attempt ‘serious’ postures. Like Nitish Kumar, he seems to have done a ‘somersault’ seeing my discomfiture. I shall tackle him later but for the moment explained to him that these were the after-effects of Covid.
Slowly and steadily, I increased the sitting time from a few minutes to nearly one hour. I could finally sit but had difficulty only while getting up. My ego prevented me from seeking the assistance of anyone to lift me. Was I so unfit physically? No, I would not admit such depravity of thoughts. The getting up part was like a giraffe getting up, as I could see in the mirror on my front. I found a quick solution, changed my position and away from the inimical mirror.
I tiptoed into a hall of bare upper-bodied men, already seated, and occupying the entire hall. Someone from the conducting priest hurriedly requested a pair seated in the front row to make a little space for me. As a child, I had read a story of a camel that tried to go ahead of its caravan but resulted in its tail being bitten by the wicked elder camels at his back. So, I shall not take the front seat and shall not squeeze with difficulty between two unrelenting bloated men, worry, and miss out listening and repeating all the mantras and tantra.
I looked around, and there was an empty chair in the rear row. Winning the first prize from the Dear lottery for Rs.2.5 crores would not have made me as much happier at that moment. I trapezed, tiptoed like a ballet dancer, to the chair, just in time as another aspirant began his move with the same intention. So there I was, seated on a chair, and another chair doubling as a table for doing the religious ceremonies.
Someone was live streaming as I hid my face so my wife would not get wind of me in a chair-seated situation. I must act as if I could do Padmasana for nearly ninety minutes and come unscathed as a hero.
I shall begin my Padmasana trials again a week before next year’s Avani Avittam, falling on 30th August 2023.
Despite my quirkiness, I am Radha’s hero.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
