Ōṇaṃ: U-turns aplenty this fortnight!

In my state of spiritual evolution then, I had responded, “Well, vāmanā never 'killed' bal̥i, but merely revealed to him his (bal̥i's own) true🆔identity🪪& his right📍place. Thus, vāmanā transformed bal̥i from the mortal to the immortal. These are, more significantly, allegorical/symbolic/figurative/emblematic, rather than dryly historical… with the poetic freedom of exaggeration to highlight the truth. We had a great story-telling tradition to convey the most complicated concepts of life, in an easily-comprehensible & interestingly-memorable way.”

Observing the questioner’s keen inquisitiveness & sincere seeking, I had continued “So, apart from its evolutionary & historic factuality, this whole story actually happens within everyone of us everyday, nay every moment. Yes, bal̥i cakravarti signifies our false🪪identification🆔with our sharp intellect, which is indeed capable of fantastic achievements, like those of the great king bal̥i, yet finite/bounded/limited.”

Appreciating the questioner’s sustained interest, I summarised “In this stepwise unraveling of the higher & higher levels of truth, like climbing a ladder, unwrapping a multiply-packaged precious gift, or peeling an🧅onion, unless our truest🕉️identity emerges from its finite insignificance <bal̥i> to the infinitely♾significant <tri-vi-kramā>, we’ll be thoroughly-satisfied, sinking into a stagnating comfort zone, & even exaggeratedly-raving about our merely-finite achievements. This is represented by vāmanā becoming tri-vi-krama to show bal̥i cakra-varti his true place & hence providing room for his further evolution. Our body, mind & intellect (BMI), all have their wonderful significance, as long as they last & should be given utmost understanding & care, but we should not get lost in them alone, as the significance of our true metaphysical nature is incomparably-greater than our physicality, subtlety or even causality.”

Earlier this month, we had seen how lakṣ-mī tied a rākhī sū-trā to bal̥i cakra-varti in pātāla lokā, persuading him to request her benevolent husband nārāyaṇā, our own everythingness (sic), which had Himself/itself decided to stay with His/its righteous devotee bal̥i, in the form of a dwarf <vāmana-avatārā> along with bal̥i’s doorkeepers <dvāra-pāl̥akās>, even without bal̥i’s knowledge. Such was the love & care of vāmanā for bal̥i cakra-varti, who in turn enabled the reunion of our everythingness with its own power of prosperity. 

A couple of months back, we had explored our own 4th avatar as dwarfed humanitarianism <vāmanā>, close to divinity <upa+indrā=upéndrā>, yet all-inclusive & freely-expansive <tri-vi-kramā>, to put back in place our own aggressively-overwhelming impersonification (sic) <ahaṁ-kāra> or falsely assumed identities, symbolised by the proportional gain ‘P’ <bal̥i-cakra-varti> in our robotic PID controller. 

Thus, tiru-v-ōṇaṃ today doesn’t happen in isolation. It was preceded by a weeklong set of August reminders to turn back inwards to our source:

1. Beginning with a penance 🧘‍♀️ of golden fairness <svarna-gauri🥻vr̥tā> on the 21st;
2. Lording over all quarters of finitude <gaṇēśa🐘caturti> on the 22nd;
3. Perceiving🪬<ऋषि>👁️beyond the 5️⃣ elements <r̥ṣi pañcami> on the 23rd. I’ll get back to you on this with a yet-to-be-made video, as we conducted a rare🧙🏿‍♂️r̥ṣi🔥homā at🏡home on this special occasion, expressing🧎🏽‍♀️‍➡️gratitude🤲🏽to🙏🏽all🪬seers👁️over the ages, accelerating our life journey <yātrā> to liberation🆓<mokṣā>, occurring immediately after gaṇēśa🐘caturti every year;
4. Reincarnating our reinforced soul <bala-rāma jay-anti> highlighting the quintet spectrum of our own hexaploid <pañca-raṅga ṣaṣṭi> chromosome on the 24th;
5. Decorating ourselves with a blemishless <nir-dōṣa> but yet-to-be-liberated jewel 💎 <a-mukta-ābharana> designated as a  heptameter <saptami> on the 25th;
6. Recognising our inherent nature & capacity to reverse our gushing🏞️flow from the source <dhā-rā> back to the source <rā-dhā jayanti>, tickled by as little as a grassy blade of an octave <dūrvā-aṣṭami> on the 26th;
7. Resurrecting ourselves from drowning in purely materialistic pursuits <jyēṣṭa-lakṣ-mī vr̥tā> to begin a week of truthful storytelling & listening to the eulogised sport of divinity  <bhāgavata saptāha> on the 27th;
8. Relegating entirely from the noisy💥decibels of materialistic pursuits <jyēṣṭa-lakṣ-mī vi-sar-janā>, yet relishing the 🔟-fold aroma 👃 <su-gandha daśami> of Mother🌏Earth on the 28th;
9. Dwarfing ourselves <vāmana jayanti> to showcase the human potency of tight packing the universal spirit in a 🥜nutshell day before y’day, on the 29th, responsible & prerequisite for today’s tiru-v-ōṇaṃ! It also happened to be parivartana ēkā-daśi, the day on which our own slumbering everythingness turns around rolling on its🛏bed  of ādi1️⃣ananta♾śēśā0️⃣, switching the direction of grace in dream-views;
10. Reuniting the apparent femininity & masculinity within us into their holistic reality <🐍rāhu-kāl̥aṁ☀️ravi pra-doṣaṁ> y’day, the 30th. 

JaiHind folks! It’s thus been a week of circles ⭕️ ⭕️ ⭕️. Amongst the innumerable beauties of this unique geometry is either that 

1. there’s neither a starting point nor an ending point to a circle ⭕️; OR
2. every point on the circle is simultaneously a starting & ending point!

If you take the first of the above 2️⃣ routes, the only solution is to approach our center in the limit of the circle’s radius tending to 0️⃣. Then the circle ⭕️ degenerates to a point, which is pointless, without a footprint, becoming its own starting & ending point! This inward journey towards being centred is our surefire path towards nothingness <śi-vā>. 

On the other🤚hand, or rather🦵leg, if you take the second of the above 2️⃣ routes, the only solution is to unlimitedly expand our periphery in the limit of the circle’s radius tending to ♾. Then the center of the infinite♾circle⭕️is every point within it. Essentially, the center loses its very identity, which is meaningless, with its footprint all over! This inward journey from an ♾ ⭕️ towards all-inclusivity is our surefire path towards our own everythingness <viṣṇū>. 

Leave alone classical mal̥ayāl̥am̐/ tamiḻ, even in ancient Hebrew, ōṇaṃ refers to something of immensity, both in terms of human potential & challenges! Let the amazing benefits of sacrifice taught in various ages & contexts by examples such as bal̥i cakra-varti, vāman-avatār, Jesus Christ & A/Ibrahim inspire us to contribute our might to the wellbeing of all around us. 

This year, it was Good Friday wishes on April 10th, عید الاضحی مبارک (Eid-al-adha mubārak) on the last day of July & ōṇaṃ āśamsaka on the last day of August today, but the message from all these 3️⃣ festivals remains the same: the immense joys of sacrifice! May we realise that true joy is not only in sharing, but living in true gratitude for what has already been shared with us, & that’s even more immense than anything that we could ever give. 

Most importantly, let's not become mere pawns in the hands of those who want to TRUMPet & perpetuate colonial 'divide & rule' policies forever. Victory to true knowledge. Unless we re-cognise that we ourselves are nothing but embodiments of love, we can't love ‘anyone else’ truly. Unless we can take care of ourselves, we’ll soon be incapable of taking care of others. Even a👶🏻newborn's🤰🏻mother needs to eat well, if she needs to feed🤱her baby well. Proper upkeep of our🧰toolset of body, mind & intellect (BMI) is the natural prerequisite to enhance our ability to sacrifice. 

May the great bal̥i cakra-varti inherent in everyone of us re-cognise (even more deeply than we ever have so far) on this tiru-v-ōṇaṃ the oneness of the insignificant 0️⃣ represented by vāmanā (whose jay-anti as upa-indrā was day before yesterday in 2025, as opposed to the much earlier occurrence in the original year of this article) & the infinitely-significant ♾ symbolised by tri-vi-kramā, as well as everything in-between (the non-zero finite), demonstrated annually by the inimitable bal̥i cakra-varti returning within us, despite our theoretical knowledge. 

BTW, all of what I share from the depths of my💖heart in these series of posts is the universal wisdom perceived by many seers in every age. I recognise myself as just a medium conveying the wisdom that already belongs to you, back to you. As a popular bhajan goes, térā tujko arpan. The great seers who have inspired me continue to communicate through me. éntaro-mahā-anu-bhāv-ulū. andariki-mā-vandanamū!