Next in Line

“Some are moving, some are on the way, and some are entering the city. Some are grabbing the bow, offering their respects to it, and then sitting down after having failed to lift it.” (Janaki Mangala, 11)
eka calahiṃ eka bīca eka pura paiṭhahiṃ |
eka dharahiṃ dhanu dhāya nāi sirū baiṭhahīṃ ||
In the Vedic tradition, the image of a throng of people moving systematically, as if on a conveyor belt, in an attempt to offer respects to a particular worshipable item is not out of the ordinary. The predominant message of the spiritual tradition of India is love, the divine variety. As is obvious to the sober person, love does not flow through only one outlet. There is a variety in activity for a reason, as not every person has the same desires or inherent qualities. The spirit soul is provided a playing field that is the body, so there is also variety in the recommended auspicious activities. For instance, chanting the holy names of the Lord, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, is considered the most effective method of the discipline of bhakti-yoga, but this doesn’t mean that one who can’t chant is shut out from spiritual life. Rather, every tool and practice of bhakti is aimed at cementing a consciousness fixed on the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has a blissful form. The lines of people formed generally relate to worshiping a deity manifestation of God or offering a specific item of worship, but in one case many thousands of years ago, the assembly had the purpose of winning the hand of the goddess of fortune in marriage. Though many suitors came and kept this line moving along, they failed to win the prize of the day. Nevertheless, their participation earned them tremendous spiritual merits.
Why was there a line formed to marry a princess? Was she looking at these men and then deciding who was worthy based on appearance? Isn’t that kind of shallow? The marriage ceremony was a self-choice, or svayamvara. The groom was not decided beforehand, so anyone was open to compete to have Sita Devi, Janaka’s daughter, as a wife. In the time period that the event took place, most marriages were arranged by the parents, as they would match up the qualities of the participants and then from there decide if the marriage was suitable.
King Janaka faced an issue in this area. His daughter came to him as a baby lying within a field. Therefore he couldn’t use the time of her birth or the ancestry of her biological parents to determine her future qualities. Moreover, he didn’t want to give her up. She was his precious daughter, full of every virtue imaginable. In fact, whoever gets Sita as a daughter should be considered the most fortunate human being. Janaka knew this, as the thought of her marriage made him feel like he was losing his fortune. Sita Devi, in describing the circumstances many years later to the female sage Anasuya, herself said that Janaka felt the way that a rich person would feel if they were about to lose their entire fortune.

“After seeing that I had reached an age suitable for giving me away to a proper husband in marriage, my father became overcome with fear and anxiety, like a man who was about to become poor.” (Sita Devi speaking to Anasuya, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, 118.34)

That’s a pretty lofty comparison to make, but Sita was correct. Janaka was a chivalrous king in charge of the welfare of the kingdom of Videha, but despite his duties he was not materially attached. He was famous for having conquered over the senses. Just as we think someone is superior in their willpower when we see that they are able to control their eating habits in the face of the many delights available from restaurants and fast food places, just imagine how much respect you garner if you are controlled in every aspect of your behavior.
Janaka didn’t follow virtue, piety and dispassion to gain any acclaim. Renunciation is a virtue championed by the Vedas, which try to give mankind the tools necessary for becoming God conscious by the time death arrives. Since affixing your thoughts on God at the time of death is a rare feat, just by following the rules and regulations without knowing the meaning behind them can provide much help. For instance, if a person from the laborer class should honestly serve the three higher classes, in the next life they can take birth in circumstances more conducive to yoga.
Janaka was in the royal order, or second highest division. But he was a rajarishi, or saintly king. Though he had material delights available to him, he was a transcendentalist through and through. When he found Sita, however, his renunciation went right out the window. From his behavior that followed, he showed everyone the right way to view attachment and detachment. Caring for family members, having a large heart, and being compassionate are only detrimental when they take you off the righteous path. Though he had full affection for Sita, that did not stop Janaka from carrying out his prescribed duty of getting her married.
Oh, but his piety would be handsomely rewarded. Even when carrying out his duties as a matter of protocol, Janaka kept the higher authority figures in mind. Janaka decided that for Sita’s marriage he would hold a contest to see if anyone could lift Lord Shiva’s bow. Mahadeva is the expansion of the Supreme Lord in charge of the material mode of ignorance. Every type of person is granted a worshipable figure, even if they are unaware of it. Mahadeva is known as Ashutosha, which means that he is easily pleased. He is only interested in worshiping the Supreme Lord in His form of Shri Rama, so anyone who comes to him with requests for material benedictions is quickly granted whatever they want. This way Lord Shiva can go back to concentrating on Shri Rama - uttering His name and thinking about His lotus feet, which are so soft and beautiful.

“Shambhu, or Lord Shiva, is the ideal Vaishnava. He constantly meditates upon Lord Rama and chants Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Lord Shiva has a Vaishnava sampradaya, which is called the Vishnu Svami-sampradaya.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 3.23.1 Purport)

Little did Janaka know that his decision to insert Lord Shiva into the mix would bring him the company of Shri Rama. The news went out across the land about the contest, and since the parties involved were Janaka, his daughter Sita, and Lord Shiva, everyone was excited to come. Even members of other classes and races decided to dress up and attend the event. There was no restriction imposed, as the bow was considered impossible to lift. If anyone should miraculously raise it, then certainly it would be an indication of Providence declaring them worthy of having Sita as a wife.
In the above referenced verse from the Janaki Mangala, Goswami Tulsidas is continuing his description of the scene on the day of the svayamvara. Kings from around the world are flocking to Tirahuta, Janaka’s capital city. Some parties are just starting on their journey, packed together with their royal paraphernalia and entourage. Some are travelling into the city, while others are in between the two parties.
Since there are so many people arriving, the scene looks like the world’s largest conveyor belt. One after another, princes are approaching the bow, paying their respects to it, attempting to lift it, and then sitting down. There is no counting how many princes are arriving, for the line just keeps on moving, similar to the gathering that forms in front of a temple on the day of an abhisheka ceremony.

“Seeing that greatest of bows, which had the weight of a mountain, the kings offered their respects to it but then left on account of being unable to lift it.” (Sita Devi speaking to Anasuya, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, 118.43)

The deity is the worshipable figure that depicts the spiritual attributes of the Personality of Godhead. We should all worship God; that is not a novel concept. Every major religion espouses this belief. How that worship should take place is where the details are sometimes lacking. If we don’t know what God looks like, how are we to remember Him? If we can’t remember someone, how can we worship them? If we don’t know where they live, what they want out of us, and how they’ll react to our offerings, how is anyone supposed to ever worship them?
The Vedas provide the missing details by describing God as both formless and with form. The formless aspect is only from the perspective of the living entities. In reality, God’s form is all-encompassing, so gigantic that you can’t even understand it. Think of it like having to look at an astronomically large number that doesn’t have any commas in it. With so many digits, trying to decipher the value of that number will be very difficult.
The deity provides clarity of vision to the conditioned eye, which requires so much external support to make perceptions. We are proud of our technological advancement and philosophical mettle, but without the aid of nature’s arrangements like heat and light, none of it would be possible. Similarly, for the conditioned being, making progress through study of just the impersonal aspect of the Supreme Lord is very difficult. Even those who do make progress along this path eventually turn their minds towards the personal aspect.
Janaka was a great example of this. He was known as Videha because of his renunciation and knowledge of impersonal Brahman. Because he was desireless he became the perfect candidate to have Sita Devi as a daughter. Sita is the eternal consort of the Supreme Lord, who was roaming the earth as Rama at the time. The deities of these two figures are still worshiped to this day, showing that God has spiritual attributes that can be remembered and honored. The worshipable body, the archa-vigraha, is the proxy to accept obeisances. Man can’t just take any collection of metal or brass and worship it as God, but through an authorized system, where the figure is crafted as a replica of one of the Supreme Lord’s many spiritual forms, the material elements become a deity that accepts the offerings directly from the worshipers.
In a temple where the deity is worshiped, there are annual occasions where the worshipers can come and pour milk, water, honey and other preparations onto the deity as part of a bathing ceremony. God in His original form may not be there for the occasion, but through His deity He allows everyone to worship Him nonetheless. The bathing is enjoyed by the Supreme Lord and the worshipers; hence there is often a line that forms, with the participants eager to see the Lord up close and give Him a nice bath.
Unbeknownst to the pilgrims visiting Janakpur, they were offering their respects to both Lord Shiva and Sita Devi. Despite their failure to lift the bow, they got to take part in one of the most blessed events ever held on this earth. Eventually prince Rama, Lord Shiva’s beloved and the Supreme Lord of the universe, arrived on the scene and easily lifted and strung the bow. Sita and Rama would come together in Janaka’s kingdom, and the world would be bestowed a story to delight in for countless future generations.
The conveyor belt of princes also enhanced the glory of the victor of the contest. The throng of unsuccessful participants showed just how difficult it was to lift Lord Shiva’s bow and how amazing it was for any person to even come close to moving it. The difficulty of the contest substantiated Janaka’s decision, alleviating his doubts about parting with Sita. Through Rama, Janaka would gain the Supreme Lord as a son-in-law. He would get to gaze upon the embodiment of Brahman, the person behind the impersonal effulgence. The personal form is always superior, because there is no mistaking the Personality of Godhead to be something that He isn’t. Even those who didn’t know that Rama was God gained tremendous spiritual merits just by looking at Him.
The participants’ ignorance of Sita’s identity as the goddess of fortune did not harm them. Instead, their natural and spontaneous love for Sita made them enjoy her wedding ceremony even more. The long line of princes arriving in Janakpur added a wonderful decoration to the beautiful sacrifice, which was as worshipable as the Supreme Lord. Just thinking of Sita and Rama’s marriage is as good as being there, which means that remembering the scene over and over again keeps the beloved couple in the heart.
In Closing:
The svayamvara held by Janaka at the center,
Of attention in Tirahuta, many princes do enter.
While some are arriving, others are in between,
And some are just starting, so glorious the scene.
Line keeps moving like a conveyor belt,
Failing to move bow dejection suitors felt.
Shri Rama, the prince of Raghu’s fame,
Arrived on scene for Sita’s hand to gain.
Lifting Mahadeva’s bow Janaki He deserved,

Sita found perfect match, Janaka’s vow preserved.

அன்னதானம் செய்வோம் ! பலன் பெறுவோம்

நம்மிடம் இருக்கும் பொருளை மற்றவர்க்கு ஈந்து - கொடுப்பவரும், பெறுபவரும் மகிழ்ச்சி அடைவதால் ஏற்படும் பெரும் புண்ணியம் பெறுவதற்கான புனிதச் செயல் அன்னதானமாகும்.
தலைப்படுதானம், இடைப்படுதானம், கடைப்படுதானம் என்று பொதுவாக மூன்று வகைப்படுத்தப்படுகின்ற தானங்களிலும், தேவர்களுக்கும், மனிதர்களுக்கும் கொடுக்கப்படும் சுமார் 42 வகை தானங்களிலும், மிக மிக உயர்ந்ததாகவும், உன்னதமானதாகவும், அனைவரும் செய்தே ஆகவேண்டிய தானமாகவும் கருதப்படுவது அன்னதானம் மட்டுமே ஆகும்.

உணவே அனைத்திற்கும் ஆதாரமாக விளங்குகின்றது. வாழ்க்கைக்கான அத்தியாவசிய தேவையான உணவை மற்றவர்க்கு தானமாக அளிப்பதே அன்னதானம் ஆகும். அன்னதானம் அளவற்ற புண்ணியத்தினை நல்கும். மற்றப் பொருட்களையெல்லாம் தானமாகக் கொடுத்தாலும், பெறுபவர், இன்னும் கொஞ்சம் அதிகம் கொடுத்தால் நன்றாக இருக்குமே என்ற எண்ணம் தோன்றச் செய்யும். ஆனால், அன்னதானம் செய்தால் மட்டுமே போதும் என்ற சொல்லை தானமாகப் பெறுபவரிடமிருந்து கொண்டு வரும். ஆகையாலே பூரணமான தானம் - அன்னதானம் மட்டுமே ஆகும்.

எந்த ஒரு பெரும் வைபவத்திலும் இறுதியாக அமைவது அன்னதானம் மட்டுமே. வைபவத்தில், எந்த ஒரு குறையிருந்தாலும் அந்தக் குறைகள் அனைத்தையும் களைவது அன்னதானம் மட்டுமே ஆகும். உதரம் (வயிறு) நிறைந்து, உள்ளம் நிறைந்த வாழ்த்துக்கள் ஈரேழு ஜன்மங்களையும் தொடர்ந்து வரும். அன்னதானம் மட்டுமே செய்தவரை மட்டும் சென்றடையாமல், செய்தவரின் சந்ததியினரையும் காத்துத் தொடரக் கூடியது.அன்னதாதா சுகி பவ
(அன்னத்தை வழங்குபவர் சுகமாக வாழ்வார்) - என்ற மூதுரையும்,
அற்றார் அழி பசி தீர்த்தல் அஃதொருவன் பெற்றான் பொருள் வைப்புழி
(திருக்குறள் - 226) என்ற திருக்குறளும் அன்னதானத்தின் அருமைகளை அறிவிக்கின்றன.
அன்னதானத்தின் பெருமைகளை அளவிடமுடியாது. அதைப்பற்றி அறிவிக்க அனேகம் உள்ளன.

தானம் செய்வதில் பெரும் பெயர் அடைந்தவன் - கர்ணன்.
மஹாபாரத இதிகாசத்தில் கர்ணன் - அவன் செய்த கொடையாலும், தர்மத்தாலும், தானத்தாலும் பெரும் பெயர் பெற்றான்.
கர்ணனுக்குப் பிறகு கொடையில்லை என்ற சொல்வழக்கே உண்டு. கர்ணனைப் போல் யாவரும் தானம் செய்தது கிடையாது. அவன் பெருமையை அனேக சம்பவங்கள் எடுத்துக் காட்டியிருக்கின்றன.ஒரு சமயம், கடும் மழையால் அகிலமே நனைந்திருக்கின்றது. அச்சமயம் பார்த்து வேதியர் ஒருவர் தான் செய்யவேண்டிய ஒரு பெரும் யாகத்திற்காக, காய்ந்த ஸமித்துகளும், மரங்களும் பெற வேண்டி, அனைவரிடமும் வேண்டுகின்றார். சமையலுக்குக் கூட விறகு இல்லாத நிலையில் அனைவரும் தங்களிடம் இல்லை என்று கைவிரித்து விடுகின்றனர். இறுதியாக கர்ணனிடம் வந்து யாசிக்கின்றார்.
அவர் கர்ணனிடமிருந்து பெரும் அளவில் காய்ந்த மரங்களை யாகங்களுக்காக மனமகிழ்வுடன் பெற்றுச் செல்கின்றார்.
எங்கிருந்து இந்த அளவுக்குக் காய்ந்த மரங்கள் கிடைத்தன என்று அனைவரும் வியந்தனர்.

அரண்மனையின் உள்ளே சென்று பார்த்தபோது தான் தெரிந்தது, தனது மணிமண்டபத்தினை இடித்து, மண்டபத்தினைத் தாங்கிக் கொண்டிருந்த உத்தரங்களையும், தூண்களையும் (மண்டபத்தின் உள்ளே இருக்கும் தூண்களும், உத்தரங்களும் காய்ந்துதானே இருக்கும்) வெட்டிக் கொடுத்திருக்கின்றான் கர்ணன். அந்த அளவுக்கு கொடுப்பதிலே வள்ளல் கர்ணன். வறுமைக்கே வறுமையை வைத்தவன். இடது கை கொடுப்பதை வலது கை அறியாவண்ணம் (இடக்கையில் இருப்பதை வலக்கையில் கொண்டு வரும் நேரம் கூட, தானத்தின் தன்மையை மாற்றிவிடும். ஆகையால், இடக்கையில் எடுத்ததை அக்கையாலேயே வழங்கும் தன்மை கொண்டவன்) கொடுத்துக் கொடுத்துச் சிவந்த கரத்தை உடையவன்.

கர்ணனின் கொடைக்கு மற்றும் ஓர் உதாரணம்.
மஹாபாரதப் போரில் கர்ணனின் மார்பை அம்புகளால் துளைத்தெடுக்கின்றான் அர்ஜுனன். ஆயினும் கர்ணனின் உயிர் பிரியவில்லை. அவன் செய்த தர்மம் அவனின் தலையைக் காக்கின்றது. பகவான் கிருஷ்ணர் ஒரு வேதியர் வடிவம் கொண்டு கர்ணனிடம், இதுவரை கர்ணன் செய்த புண்ணியத்தை அனைத்தையும் தானமாக வேண்டுகின்றார்.
இதுவரை செய்த தானத்தைக் கொடுப்பதால் அதற்கென்று ஒரு புண்ணியம் வருமே! அந்தப் புண்ணியத்தையும் தானமாக கொடுக்கின்றார் கர்ணன்.
எப்படி?
வேதியர் வடிவம் கொண்ட கிருஷ்ணருக்கு 'இப்பிறப்பில் யான் செய்புண்ணியம் அனைத்தையும் தருகின்றேன்' என்று உரைக்கின்றார்.செய்புண்ணியம் எனும் வார்த்தை - ஒரு வினைத் தொகை. வினைத் தொகை முக்காலத்தையும் குறிக்கக் கூடியது.
உதாரணமாக ஒரு வினைத்தொகை வார்த்தை : ஊறுகாய். ஊறிய காய், ஊறுகின்ற காய், ஊறப்போகின்ற காய் என்று அர்த்தம் அமையும்.
அது போல - செய்புண்ணியம் எனும் வார்த்தை - இதுவரை செய்த புண்ணியம், இப்பொழுது செய்கின்ற புண்ணியம், எதிர்வரப் போகின்ற புண்ணியம் என அனைத்தையும் தானமாக கண்ணனுக்கு அளிக்கின்றான் கர்ணன்.
கர்ணனுக்கு அளப்பரிய வகையில் தானம் செய்த பெரும் பெயர் கிடைக்கின்றது. தானம் பெற்றவுடன் வேதியர், தன் சுய உருக்கொண்டு, கர்ணனுக்கு விஸ்வரூப தரிசனம் காட்டுகின்றார்.
கர்ணன் மடிகின்றான்.
இறந்த பிறகு சொர்க்கத்திற்கு செல்கின்றான் கர்ணன். எல்லாவிதமான சௌகரியங்களும் கிடைக்கின்றது கர்ணனுக்கு. ஆனால், கடுமையான பசி எடுக்கின்றது. சொர்க்கத்தில் பசி என்ற உணர்வே கிடையந்தாயிற்றே!
தனக்கு மட்டும் பசியெடுக்கக் காரணம் என்று எண்ணியபோது, நாரத மகரிஷி அங்கு தோன்றுகின்றார்.
கர்ணனிடம் நாரதர், பசி நீங்கவேண்டுமானால், உன் ஆட்காட்டி விரலை வாயில் வைத்துக் கொள் என்கிறார். அதன்படி, ஆட்காட்டி விரலை வாயில் வைத்தால், பசி நீங்குகின்றது. ஆனால், மறுபடிப் பசியெடுக்கின்றது.
மறுபடியும் நாரதரை கர்ணன் நினைக்க, அவர் தோன்றுகின்றார். அவரிடம் கர்ணன் தனக்குப் பசியெடுப்பதற்கும், ஆட்காட்டி விரலை வாயில் வைத்தால் பசி நீங்குவதற்கும் காரணம் கேட்கின்றார்.
அதற்கு, நாரதர் உன் வாழ்வில் நீ அனைத்து தானங்களையும் செய்திருக்கின்றாய், ஆனால், ஒரே ஒரு தானத்தைத் தவிர. அது அன்னதானம். அன்னதானம் செய்யாமல் சொர்க்கத்திற்கு வந்ததால், இங்கு வந்தும் உனக்குப் பசியெடுக்கின்றது. உன் பூலோக வாழ்நாளில் ஒருநாள் உன்னிடமிருந்து தானம் பெற்றவர் அன்னசத்திரம் எங்கிருக்கிறது எனக் கேட்க அதற்கு நீ உன் ஆட்காட்டி விரலைக் காட்டி அங்கிருக்கின்றது என்றிருக்கின்றாய். நேரடியாக அன்னதானம் செய்யாவிட்டாலும், அன்னதானத்திற்கான காரணியாக விளங்கிய உன் ஆட்காட்டி விரல் மட்டும் அன்னதானப் பலன் பெற்றது. ஆகையால், உன் ஆட்காட்டி விரலை வாயில் வைக்கும்போது, சொர்க்கத்தின் முழுப்பலனாகிய பசியின்மையும் சேர்த்து உனக்குக் கிடைக்கின்றது என்றார்.
அன்னதானம் செய்யாமலேயே, அன்னசத்திரம் இருந்த இடத்தைக் காட்டியமைக்கே இந்தப் புண்ணியம் என்றால், அன்னதானத்தின் மகிமையை எப்படி அளவிடமுடியும்.
கர்ணனுக்கு ஒரு எண்ணம் தோன்றுகின்றது. அன்னதானத்தையும் அளப்பரிய வகையில் செய்யத் தோன்றுகின்றது. பரம்பொருளிடம் தன் எண்ணத்தை முன்வைக்கின்றான் கர்ணன்.
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கி.பி. எட்டாம் நூற்றாண்டு.
மாமல்லபுரத்தைக் கட்டிய நரசிம்ம பல்லவன் காலம்.
நரசிம்ம பல்லவனின் படைத்தளபதி பரஞ்சோதி. மகா வீரர்.
பரஞ்சோதி படைக் கலன்களைக் கையாள்வதில் பெரும் தேர்ச்சி பெற்றிருந்தார். அதேசமயம் சிவத் தொண்டிலும், சிவனடியார்க்குத் தொண்டு செய்வதிலும் மனம் அதிகமாகச் சென்றது.
நரசிம்ம பல்லவனுக்காக, வடபுலம் சென்று வாதாபி எனும் நகரைக் கொளுத்தி வெற்றி வாகை சூடி வருகின்றார்.
பரஞ்சோதி படைத் தளபதியாக இருந்தாலும், ஆழ்மனதில் சிவத்தொண்டு செய்யும் மனப்பாங்கே அதிகமாக இருந்தது.
வெற்றிச் செய்தியை நரசிம்ம பல்லவனுக்குச் சொல்லிய அதே நேரம் தன் உள்ளக் கிடக்கையாகிய சிவத்தொண்டு புரிவதே தன் விருப்பம் என்று சொல்கின்றார்.
மனம் மகிழ்ந்த பல்லவன் பரஞ்சோதியின் விருப்பத்திற்கிணங்க, அவருக்கு வேண்டிய வசதிகளைச் செய்து தந்தான்.
திருவெண்காட்டு நங்கை எனும் தன் மனையாளுடன் இல்லறம் நடத்திவந்தார். சீராளன் எனும் செல்வ மகன் பிறந்தான். மகிழ்வான வாழ்க்கை வாழ்ந்து கொண்டிருந்தனர்.
சிவனடியார்களில் தான் ஒரு சிறு அடியவர் என அறிவித்துக் கொண்டமையால் அவர் சிறுத்தொண்டர் என அன்புடன் அழைக்கப்பட்டார்.
ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் சிவனடியாருக்கு அன்னதானம் இட்ட பிறகே உண்ணும் வழக்கம் கொண்டு, அந்த சிவப் பணியை செவ்வனே செய்து கொண்டிருந்தார். அப்பணியை குடும்பமே உவந்து செய்து வந்தது.
அவரின் சிவத்தொண்டினை உலகறியச் செய்ய சிவபெருமான் திருவுள்ளம் கொண்டார்.
ஒரு நாள், வைரவர் (வடதேசத்திலிருந்து வந்த காபாலிகர். சிவச் சின்னங்களோடு, கையில் மண்டையோடு, சூலாயுதம் தரித்து) வேடம் கொண்டு, சிறுத்தொண்டர் இல்லம் சென்றார்.
அச்சமயம், சிறுத்தொண்டர் சிவனடியார் எவரேனும் இருக்கின்றாரா என்று பார்த்து அழைத்து வர வெளியில் சென்றிருக்கின்றார்.
வைரவர் வேடம் கொண்ட சிவமூர்த்தியைக் கண்ட சிறுத்தொண்டரின் மனைவி ஆவலுடன் அன்னமிட அழைக்கின்றார்.
அவரோ, ஆண்கள் இல்லாத வீட்டில் நுழையமாட்டேன், அருகில் (உள்ள ஆலயமாகிய திருச்செங்காட்டங்குடியின் ஸ்தல விருக்ஷமாகிய) அத்தி மரத்தின் கீழ் அமர்கின்றேன், உன் கணவர் வந்தால் வரச்சொல் என்று சொல்லிச் சென்றுவிட்டார்.
சிவனடியார் எவரையும் காணாமல் மனம் நொந்து வருகின்ற கணவரைக் கண்டு, அவரின் மனைவி நடந்ததைச் சொல்ல, சிறுத்தொண்டரோ மனம் மிக மகிழ்ந்து அத்தி மரத்தின் கீழ் அமர்ந்திருந்த வைரவர் கோலம் கொண்ட வடகயிலை நாதனின் பாதத்தில் விழுந்து, அன்புடன் அடியவன் இல்லம் வந்து அமுது கொண்டு, அருள்பாலிக்க அழைக்கின்றார்.
வைரவரோ, நான் கேட்கும் உணவை உன்னால் அளிக்க முடியாது. ஆகையால் உன் இல்லம் வரமுடியாது என்கின்றார்.
சிறுத்தொண்டர், தாங்கள் கேட்கும் உணவை மிக நிச்சயமாக அளிப்பேன் என்று வாக்குக் கொடுக்கின்றார்.
அனைவரும் அதிரும் வண்ணம், வைரவர், 'நான் ஆறு மாதத்திற்கு ஒரு முறைதான் உணவு கொள்வேன். அந்த உணவு ஐந்து வயதுடைய, குடும்பத்திற்கு ஒரே வாரிசான ஆண் குழந்தையின் கறியை மட்டுமே சாப்பிடுவேன். அதுவும் அக்கறியை அக்குழந்தையின் அன்னை கால்களைப் பிடிக்க, தந்தை அரிவாளால் அரிந்து சமைக்க வேண்டும். இந்தச் செயலைச் செய்யும் போது எவர் கண்ணிலும் கண்ணீர் வரக்கூடாது. மனமகிழ்வுடன் செய்யவேண்டும். அப்படிச் செய்தால் தான் சாப்பிடுவேன்' என்கின்றார்.
எந்தக் குழந்தையின் தாய் தன் ஒரே மகனை வெட்டுப்படுவதைப் பார்க்க முடியும்? எந்தத் தந்தைதான் தன் ஒரே குழந்தையை வெட்ட முடியும்? அதுவும் அச்செயலை மனமகிழ்வுடன் எவர்தான் செய்ய முடியும்?
கலங்கிய நிலையில் வீட்டிற்கு வரும் கணவரை ஆவலுடன் கேட்கின்றார் அவரின் மனைவி. நடந்ததை விவரிக்கின்றார் சிறுத்தொண்டர். வேறு எவரிடமும் சென்று உங்கள் குழந்தையை வெட்டிக் கொடுங்கள் என்று கேட்க முடியாதே என்று வருந்துகின்றார். இருவரும் சேர்ந்து ஒரு முடிவெடுக்கின்றனர். தமது ஒரே குழந்தையை, ஆசையும் பாசமும் சேர்த்து வளர்த்துவரும், செல்வ மகனை, ஐந்து வயதுடைய சீராளனையே கறி சமைத்து அன்னமிட முடிவெடுக்கின்றனர்.
பாடசாலை சென்றிருந்த சீராளனை அழைத்துவருகின்றார் சிறுத்தொண்டர். ஏதுமறியாக் குழந்தை ஆசையுடன் தந்தையின் கழுத்தைக் கட்டி முத்தமிடுகின்றது. வீட்டிற்கு வந்தவுடன், குழந்தையைக் குளிப்பாட்டி, அழகு செய்து, அமரவைக்கின்றார் திருவெண்காட்டு நங்கை.
நங்கை கால் பிடிக்க, சிறுத்தொண்டர் குழந்தையை அரிவாளால் அரிந்து தர, குழந்தைக் கறி செய்கின்றனர்.
இதை அனைத்தையும் முடித்து வைரவரை அழைக்கின்றார்.
வைரவரும் சிறுத்தொண்டரின் இல்லம் வந்து அன்னமிடச் சொல்கின்றார். நங்கை அன்னத்துடன் குழந்தைக் கறியையும் கொண்டு வந்து பரிமாறுகின்றார்.
அப்போது வைரவர் தன்னுடன் அமர்ந்து சாப்பிட சிறுத்தொண்டரை அழைக்கின்றார். வைரவரின் மனம் கோணக் கூடாது என எண்ணி, அவர் அருகே அமர்கின்றார். சிறுத்தொண்டருக்கும் குழந்தைக் கறியுடன் உணவு பரிமாறப்படுகின்றது. தன் மகனின் கறியை தானே சாப்பிடவும் துணிகின்றார்.
வைரவர் மேற்கொண்டு, சிறுத்தொண்டரை நோக்கி, உனக்கு மகன் இருக்கின்றான் எனில் அவனையும் அழைத்து வந்து சாப்பிடச் சொல்லுங்கள் என்கின்றார்.
தன் மகனின் கறியைத் தான் சமைத்தோம் என்று சொன்னால், இறந்தவர் வீட்டில் வைரவர் சாப்பிட மாட்டாரோ என்று எண்ணி அஞ்சி, 'அவன் உதவான்' என்கின்றார்.
வைரவரோ, 'இல்லை இல்லை. அவன் வந்தால் தான் சாப்பிடுவேன்' என்கின்றார்.
மனம் கலங்கி நின்ற சிறுத்தொண்டரை நோக்கி, வைரவர், உங்கள் மகனை அழையுங்கள் என்கின்றார்.
நிலைதடுமாறி, வாசலில் நின்று 'சீராளா' என்கின்றார்.
மகன் எப்படி வரமுடியும்?
வைரவர் திருவெண்காட்டு நங்கையை நோக்கி, நீங்கள் சென்று அழையுங்கள் என்கின்றார்.
அவரும் தலைவாசல் வந்து 'சீராளா' என்கின்றார்.
அனைவரும் அதிசயக்கும் வகையில், சீராளன் பாடசாலையிலிருந்து வரும் நிலையில், 'அப்பா, அம்மா' என்று அழைத்தபடியே வர, பெற்றோர்கள் அவனை அப்படியே வாரியெடுத்து உச்சிமோர்ந்து, மகிழ்ந்து உள்ளே வர, அங்கே இருந்த உணவையும், வைரவரையும் காணவில்லை.சிவனும் பார்வதியும் இடபாரூடராகக் காட்சி நல்கினார்கள்.
அனைவரும் நற்கதி பெற்றனர்.
.....
கர்ணனுக்கும், சிறுத்தொண்டருக்கும் என்ன சம்பந்தம்?
சொர்க்கத்திலும் பசியெடுத்த கர்ணன் பரம்பொருளிடம், தான் மறுபடியும் பூலோகத்தில் பிறந்து, கொடைக்கு ஒரு கர்ணன் என்று பெயர் எடுத்தது போல, அன்னதானத்திலும் தான் ஒரு பெரும் பெயரும் பேறும் பெற வேண்டும் என்று பெரும் தவம் செய்து வேண்டிக்கொண்டான்.(கர்ணனின் முற்பிறப்பு ஸஹஸ்ர(1000)கவசன் என்றும், நரநாராயணர்களால் 999 கவசங்கள் அறுபட்டு, சூரியனிடம் அடைக்கலம் புகுந்தவன் என்றும், அவனே மறுபிறப்பில் ஒரே ஒரு கவசத்துடன் பிறந்த கர்ணன் என்றும் அபிதான சிந்தாமணி கூறுகின்றது.)அந்தக் கர்ணனின், மறுபிறப்புதான் சிறுத்தொண்டர்.எவரும் செய்யத் துணியாத வகையில் வைரவருக்கு அன்னமிட்டவர். சிவ பதவி அடைந்தவர். 63 நாயன்மார்களுள் ஒருவராகக் கொண்டாடப்படுபவர்.

அவரின் தூய்மையான பக்தியையும், இறைத் தொண்டினையும், ஆழ்ந்த நம்பிக்கையும், அன்னமிடுதலில் உள்ள அளவிலா அவாவினையும் இன்றளவும் உலகம் மெச்சுகின்றது.

கர்ணன் வேண்டி விரும்பிப் பெற்ற பிறவியே சிறுத்தொண்டர். முழுக்க முழுக்க அன்னதானத்திற்காகவே பிறப்பெடுத்தவர்.

அன்னதானமிட்டு அளப்பரிய பேறு பெற்றவர்.

அருந்தவம் செய்ததாலேயே அன்னதானம் செய்ய முடிந்தது.

அன்னதானம் செய்தால் அடுத்து வரும் ஏழு பிறப்புகளுக்கும் தர்மம் தலைக்காக்கும் என்றும், சந்ததிகளை வளமாக வாழவைக்கும் என்றும் சாஸ்திரங்கள் கூறுகின்றன.

அன்னதானம் செய்வதால் எல்லா விதமான பலன்களும், வேண்டுதல்களும் நிறைவேறும்.

அன்னதானம் செய்வோம் ! அளப்பரிய பலன் பெறுவோம் !!
தமிழ் தாயகத்திற்காக
S. முரளி

What If Scenarios

“Or I think that while being carried away and travelling through the aerial path, which is attended by the Siddhas [perfected beings], that noble lady’s heart sunk after seeing the ocean below. Or I think that on account of the tremendous speed of the flight and the force of Ravana’s arms that wide-eyed and noble lady gave up her life.” (Hanuman, Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 13.8-9) athavā hriyamāṇāyāḥ pathi siddha niṣevite || manye patitam āryāyā hṛdayam prekṣya sāgaram | rāvaṇasya ūru vegena bhujābhyām pīḍitena ca || tayā manye viśāla akṣyā tyaktam jīvitam āryayā  | Samadhi, or divine trance, is so difficult to achieve because of the object that needs to be harnessed. It is one thing to find shelter from the blustering wind by running quickly into the house. It is yet another to escape the scorching heat by blasting the air conditioner. But controlling the mind, which is as wild as the rapidest ocean currents that no surfer would ever dare think of mounting, is nearly impossible. One of the mind’s best tricks is to flood thoughts of horrific, unimaginable events to see what effect they have on the psyche. Sort of like the child placing his hand into the fire to see just how hot the flame is, the mind conjures up negative images to see if they really will make a negative impact. But for those who are in samadhi, with the mind fixed on the right cause for the right person, what seem like attacks by the mind actually do no harm. Why is the mind like this? Why can’t it just stay happy? So much excitement and anticipation over new activities is there, but why not constantly remain in a steady state? This is perhaps strange to accept but we actually don’t need the many changes to external surroundings to find happiness. If the mind can be convinced that it is happy, that it is in need of nothing and that there is no reason to fear loss, it will remain in a pleasant situation. “As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent Self.” (Lord Krishna   , Bhagavad-gita   , 6.19) Not surprisingly, the only way to find samadhi is through focusing the mind on God, and more specifically, on devotion to Him. From the Bhagavad-gita, the song of God sung on the battlefield of Kurukshetra some five thousand years ago by Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we learn that for one who maintains attachment to sense gratification borne of material desires, there is no chance of steadiness indevotional service   . What is sense gratification and what is devotional service? How can we tell the difference between the two? An easy way to understand sense gratification is to think of eating food. We have to eat to live. If we didn’t eat we wouldn’t have energy. Try studying for a big exam on an empty stomach and you’ll notice very quickly how important food is. Try running a long race after not having eaten anything that morning or the night before and you’ll realize the important role food plays. Food is a requirement in this sense, as even the animals know they must eat. But the question remains, “How much should we eat?” Also, “what kind of food will provide sufficient levels of energy?” Let’s say that we have a fresh pizza pie in front of us. On a personal note, pizza is our favorite food, so when discussing matters of eating, we tend to use pizza as an example, sort of a subtle form of projection. A large pizza pie is quite a good sum of food, with enough calories to surpass the average recommended daily intake for one person. If we are hungry, we will maybe eat one or two slices. This will be sufficient for the average person to satisfy their hunger. But under the model seeking only sense gratification, the taste of the pizza takes precedent over every other concern. We may even know that if we have just one more slice, we will feel ill effects later on. We will feel fat, bloated, lethargic, or downright in trouble in the stomach area. Nevertheless, the mixture of the cheese, sauce and dough is just too delectable to pass up. So we dive right into another slice. “Hmm, that didn’t seem to do much for me. I’ve eaten three slices already, why not have another? After all, how often do I get to eat pizza? This is a fresh pie too, so if I save the other slices for later they won’t taste as good.” Replicate this same scenario across a wide variety of activities and you get what the Vedic seers refer to as sense gratification. The body requires interaction with the material elements to maintain the vital force within, but basic interaction is all that is necessary. Anything above and beyond necessity is deemed sense gratification, and for one who is looking for eternal happiness and peace, they must abandon attachment to it. “Can we be attached to sense gratification? Is that even possible?” Not only is it possible, it is more often the norm. The alcoholic knows that drinking regularly leads to so many unwanted effects later on, but they nevertheless continue to get intoxicated. The gambler has wasted so much time thinking of wagers, which even when won provide little happiness, yet they still continue to check the latest point spreads and visit the casinos to try for their big payday. The same sequence is followed in the pursuit of money by businessmen and the desire for unlimited sex life by those who can’t control their sensual urges. What is the solution? How do we control sense gratification and how do we abandon attachment to it? This has been the question pondered by sober minds since the beginning of time. One option is to forget about self-realization altogether, just continue on down the path of least resistance. Instead of getting bogged down with sense gratification in one area, just find new passions every day and go after them. Obviously this will not bring any lasting peace either. The king, the government leader, and the community head all have important posts, which are coveted by many. Though they have successfully risen to a position of prominence, they nevertheless don’t sleep very well. They are always worrying about how to maintain their position and keep their dependents happy. Another option is to try yoga, some form of exercise or meditation that keeps the mind away from sense gratification. Sit in lotus postures for a long time, breathe a certain way, or just exercise a lot to keep your mind off of things. But the senses are not so kind. They don’t let you out of their clutches so easily. The yogi also has trouble sleeping because he must always worry about performing yoga perfectly, adhering to the different exercises properly. A yogi must keep progress in mind as well, ensuring that they are advancing in their regimen. Then there is another form of yoga known as jnana, wherein one follows austerity and studies scriptural texts on a regular basis to understand the differences between matter and spirit. Though sense gratification is renounced, since there is no active pursuit of a pleasurable experience, the jnana-yogi is constantly on edge about ending activity and merging into the light of Truth known as Brahman. If there is even a hint of attachment to the senses, the jnana-yogi has no chance of success. Therefore the requirements themselves serve as the catalyst for sleepless nights. Only the devotee, he who follows bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, can sleep in peace by keeping the mind always at ease. Devotional service differs from sense gratification because of the beneficiary of activity. With sense gratification the senses lead the person to things that are bad for them. In bhakti, the same senses are spiritualized and thereby cause the sincere soul to act in the interests of the Supreme Lord. Those interests are handed down confidentially from spiritual master    to spiritual master to be passed on to students sincerely interested in learning about the meaning of life, God, and how to be devoted to Him. The devoted spiritual master’s number one recommendation is that the student chant the Lord’s holy names. Rather than squabble over which religion is valid and which one isn’t, one should take it as a fact that if God is to be who He is, He would have to be the most attractive person in the world. He would also have to give transcendental pleasure to anyone who would cross His path. Therefore the Sanskrit words Krishna and Rama would very accurately address Him. God must also have an accompanying energy, a force which is always tied to Him and gives Him pleasure. Therefore the sacred maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare   ”, becomes the most appropriate way to address the Lord. The exalted servants get to offer their service directly in the presence of the Lord. Such was the case with Shri Hanuman   , the faithful messenger of Lord Rama    and the monkey-king Sugriva. Lord Krishna delivered the Bhagavad-gita on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, but many thousands of years prior He roamed the earth in the guise of a warrior prince named Rama. On one occasion, Rama’s beautiful wife Sita Devi   had been taken away stealthily by a Rakshasa king named Ravana. Sita was in the forest of Dandaka at the time, so Ravana grabbed and placed her on his aerial car and then sped away in the sky. Later on, Hanuman would be sent to look for Sita. Making his way into Lanka, he was initially unable to find her. He had searched through every nook and corner of the city, but nowhere was she to be found. Though he was always in bhakti-yoga, in samadhi, Hanuman had temporary bouts of dejection and sadness. The dastardly mind looking to test the resolve of the faithful servant rose to the challenge by implanting the most negative thoughts within Hanuman. “What if Sita isn’t alive? What if she died along the way to Lanka? What if she couldn’t handle the speed of the aerial car?” These thoughts entered Hanuman’s mind as an attempt to explain the dreadful situation. How would he react to thinking these things? Our minds keep traumatic events safely tucked away to be invoked whenever we want to test our resolve, to see how we can handle the worst news in the world. Now Hanuman was smack-dab in the middle of trouble, and he had to see just how strong his resolve was. What if Sita were dead? What if he never found her? What would he do? It seems like this mental distress proves that Hanuman was not in samadhi, and that bhakti-yoga doesn’t allow a person to remain mentally satisfied. But in reality bhakti is only hindered when there is attachment to sense gratification. For Hanuman, even in times of trouble, he had no concern over himself. His dejection was spiritual, as it was related entirely to Sita and Rama. Mental despair resulting from attachment to sense gratification is detrimental because the attachment itself shouldn’t be there. On the other hand, even dejection in devotional service is beneficial, as it increases the resolve of the devotee and their appreciation of other servants and the object of service as well. Hanuman would ponder these horrific thoughts and then decide that it didn’t matter what the current situation was. He was going to forge ahead anyway. What other option was there? Was he going to quit? Was he going to cry for the rest of his life? He still had his vital force within him, so why not use that for Rama’s benefit? He would do just that by eventually finding Sita and then helping Rama defeat Ravana. The mind will always ponder “what if” scenarios that test the reaction to ill fate. Yet the same practice can be turned around to reflect on the positive. What if we remember Hanuman and his immeasurable love for Sita and Rama every day? What if Krishna’s promise in the Bhagavad-gita to deliver the fallen souls who surrender to Him is true? What if we continue in devotional service for the rest of our lives and remain insamadhi? As long as there is a vital force within the body, there is every chance at success in spiritual pursuits. As long as Hanuman is remembered, there is every chance of remaining perseverant along the perfectional path. In Closing: Samadhi means to remain in divine trance, But with mental agitation there is no chance. Attachment to the senses causes disturbance, On material enjoyment abandon reliance. With horrible what if scenarios mind will test, Resolve of worker who at yoga trying their best. Yet if attachment to the Supreme Lord is there, Not even tragedies the devoted worker can scare. Shri Hanuman thought the worst but moved on, Would see Sita and please Rama at future’s dawn.

Energy-smart ways ‘can secure food’

MASSEY UNIVERSITY

A Massey University energy expert says the global agriculture industry, including that of New Zealand, must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels to secure food supply in the future. Professor Ralph Sims has just launched a report at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. It was produced for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. Professor Sims, from the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, is also a contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a senior analyst for the International Energy Agency. He says the report, Energy-Smart Food for People and Climate, shows the current dependence of the food sector on fossil fuels may limit the sector's ability to meet future global food demands. “The world will need to produce 75 per cent more food by 2050 so the challenge is to decouple food prices from fluctuating and rising fossil fuel prices,” he says. “The food supply chain already uses 32 per cent of total global energy and produces 22 per cent of greenhouse gases. But then we fail to consume one third of all the food the world produces. So from ‘paddock-to-plate’ the industry has to become smarter.” High and fluctuating prices of fossil fuels and doubts regarding their future availability mean that agri-food systems need to shift to a more "energy-smart" model, Professor Sims says, “and energy-smart is climate smart”. At each stage of the food supply chain, current practices can be adapted to become less energy intensive, he says. “Such efficiency gains can often come from modifying, at no or little cost, existing farming, fishing, food processing, transport, storage, retailing and cooking practices.” Steps that can be taken at the farm level vary between subsistence farming in developing countries and corporate farming but can include the use of more fuel efficient tractor operation, the use of compost and precision fertilizing, irrigation monitoring and targeted water delivery, adoption of no-till farming and conservation practices and the use of crop varieties and animal breeds that need fewer inputs. After food has been harvested, improved transport infrastructure, better insulation of food storage facilities, reductions in packaging and food waste, and more efficient cooking devices offer the possibility of reducing energy use throughout the entire food system. In addition, farmers, fishers and food processing companies usually have renewable energy resources available on-site (such as wind, solar, mini-hydro, animal wastes, crop residues, food processing rejects), that can be converted cost-effectively to provide heat, electricity and transport fuels (including bio-gas) for their own use or for sale off-site to generate additional business revenue. Professor Sims says many good examples already exist in New Zealand. “Fonterra, for example, has reduced the greenhouse gas emissions from its farm suppliers by 8.5 per cent per litre of milk and its energy inputs per tonne of milk product by 13.9 per cent,” he says.” This is a start, but purchasers of our food products continue to investigate farm and food processing practices with ever-increasing scrutiny – feeding dairy cattle on palm oil residues being just one example. “A positive message for New Zealand from the report is that food miles are less important than choosing food from regions of high productivity not involving high input levels. Producing urea fertiliser from lignite would be just one example of failing to maintain our present natural advantage, which is imperative if New Zealand is to become a leader of energy-smart food production.” Read the full report here: http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2454e/i2454e00.pdf Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Close Family Ties Keep Cheaters in Check: Why Almost All Multicellular Organisms Begin Life as a Single Cell

Science Daily — Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special difficulty for the theory of evolution. Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing, and only a privileged few will pass their genes to the next generation.

How could the extreme degree of cooperation multicellular existence requires ever evolve? Why aren't all creatures unicellular individualists determined to pass on their own genes?

Joan Strassmann, PhD, and David Queller, PhD, a husband and wife team of evolutionary biologists at Washington University in St. Louis, provide an answer in the Dec. 16 issue of the journal Science. Experiments with amoebae that usually live as individuals but must also join with others to form multicellular bodies to complete their life cycles showed that cooperation depends on kinship.

If amoebae occur in well-mixed cosmopolitan groups, then cheaters will always be able to thrive by freeloading on their cooperative neighbors. But if groups derive from a single cell, cheaters will usually occur in all-cheater groups and will have no cooperators to exploit.

The only exceptions are brand new cheater mutants in all-cooperator groups, and these could pose a problem if the mutation rate is high enough and there are many cells in the group to mutate. In fact, the scientists calculated just how many times amoebae that arose from a single cell can safely divide before cooperation degenerates into a free-for-all.

The answer turns out to be 100 generations or more.

So population bottlenecks that kill off diversity and restart the population from a single cell are powerful stabilizers of cellular cooperation, the scientists conclude.

In other words our liver, blood and bone cells help our eggs and sperm pass on their genes because we passed through a single-cell bottleneck at the moment of conception.

The social amoebae

Queller, the Spencer T. Olin professor, and Strassmann, professor of biology, moved to WUSTL from Rice University this summer, bringing a truckload of frozen spores with them.

Although they worked for many years with wasps and stingless bees, Queller and Strassmann's current "lab rat" is the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, known as Dicty for short.

The social amoebae can be found almost everywhere; in Antarctica, in deserts, in the canopies of tropical forests, and in Forest Park, the urban park that adjoins Washington University.

The amoebae spend most of their lives as tiny amorphous blobs of streaming protoplasm crawling through the soil looking for E. coli and other bacteria to eat.

Things become interesting when bacteria are scarce and the amoebae begin to starve. They then release chemicals that attract other amoebae, which follow this trail until they bump into one another.

A mound of some 10,000 amoebae forms and then elongates into a slug a few millimeters long that crawls forward (but never backward) toward heat and light.

The slug stops moving when it has reached a suitable place for dispersal, and then the front 20 percent of the amoebae die to produce a sturdy stalk that the remaining cells flow up and there become hardy spores.

Crucially, the 20 percent of the amoebae in the stalk sacrifice their genes so that the other 80 percent can pass theirs on.

When Strassmann and Queller began to work with Dicty in 1998, one of the first things they discovered was that the amoebae sometimes cheat.

Dennis Welker of Utah State University had given them a genetically diverse collection of wild-caught clones (genetically identical amoebae). They mixed amoebae from two clones together and then examined the fruiting bodies to see where the clones ended up. Each fruiting body included cells from both clones, but some clones contributed disproportionately to the spore body. They had cheated.

How can a blob of protoplasm cheat? The answer, it turns out, is many different ways.

"They might," Queller says, "have a mutation that makes an adhesion molecule less sticky, for example, so that they slide to the back of the slug, the part that forms spores."

"But there are tradeoffs," Strassmann says, "because if you're too slippery, you'll fall off the slug and lose all the advantages of being part of group."

Natural born cheaters

Mulling this over, Strassmann and Queller began to wonder if it would be possible to break the social contract among the amoebae by setting up conditions where relatedness was low and each clonal lineage encountered mostly strangers and rarely relatives.

Together with then-graduate student, Jennie Kuzdzal-Fick, they set up an experiment to learn what happened to cheating as heterogeneous (low relatedness) populations of amoebae evolved.

"At the end of the experiment, we assessed the cheating ability of the descendants by mixing equal numbers of descendants and ancestors and checking to see whether the descendants ended up in the stalks or the spores of the fruiting bodies," Strassmann says.

They found that in nearly all cases, the descendants cheated their ancestors. What's more, when descendent amoebae were grown as individual clones, about a third of them were unable to form fruiting bodies.

Many of the mutants, in other words, were "obligate" cheaters. Having lost the ability to form their own fruiting bodies, they were able to survive only by freeloading, or taking advantage of the amoebae that had retained the ability to cooperate.

This result, Queller and Strassmann say, shows that cheater mutations that threaten multicellularity occur naturally and are even favored -- as long as the population of amoebae remains genetically diverse.

What happens in the wild?

But the scientists were aware that obligate cheaters are either very rare or altogether missing among wild social amoebae. They had not found any obligate cheaters in the more than 2,000 wild clones they have sampled.

They also knew that in the wild, the amoebae in fruiting bodies are close kin, if not clones.

What prevents cooperation in wild populations from degenerating into the laboratory free-for-all? Could the difference be that the amoebae in the laboratory were distant relations and those in the wild are kissing kin?

Suppose, the scientists thought, one amoeba ventured alone into a pristine field of bacteria. As it grew and multiplied, making copies of itself, how long would it take for cheating mutations to appear (what was the mutation rate) and how successfully would these mutations proliferate (how strongly would they be selected)?

To establish the mutation rate, Strassmann and Queller together with graduate student Sara Fox ran what is called a mutation accumulation experiment.

In this experiment, amoebae that mutated didn't have to compete against amoebae that were faithful replicators. In the absence of selection, all but the most severe mutations were also reproduced and became a permanent part of the lineage's genome.

The scientists allowed 90 different lines of amoebae to accumulate mutations in this way.

"At the end," Queller says, "we found that among those 90 lines not a single one had lost the ability to fruit. So that's almost 100 lines, almost a thousand generations, so 100,000 opportunities to lose fruiting and none of them did.

"That allowed us, using statistics, to put an upper limit on the rate at which mutations turn a cooperator into an obligate cheater," he says.

The rate was low enough that if fruiting bodies were forming in the wild from amoebae that were all descended from one spore, cheating would never be an issue.

What this has to do with elephants and blue whales

But the scientists were inquisitive enough to ask another, bigger question. They used calculations invented for population genetics to ask how many times the amoeba could divide -- theoretically -- before cheating became a problem.

What if, they asked, we let an initial single amoebae divide until there were as many of amoebae as there are cells as a fruit fly and then transferred one amoeba and allowed it to divide until the daughter colony reached fruit-fly size, and so on?

What if we let the colonies grow to human size? To elephant size? To blue whale size? Would the cheaters bring down the whale-sized Dicty colony?

The answer, it turned out, was no.

A whale-sized Dicty colony is not the same thing as a whale, but nonetheless the experiments suggest how organisms, over the course of evolution, have sidestepped the cheating trap and maintained the levels of cooperation multicellular bodies demand.

"A multicellular body like the human body is an incredibly cooperative thing," Queller says, "and sociobiologists have learned that really cooperative things are hard to evolve because of the potential for cheating.

"It's the single-cell bottleneck that generates high relatedness among the cells that, in turn, allows them to cooperate, " he says.

Our liver cells have no kick against our sperm or egg cells, in other words, because they're all nearly genetically identical descendants of a single fertilized egg.

How Granular Materials Become Solid: Discovery May Be Boon to Engineers, Manufacturers

Science Daily  — A stroll on the beach can mean sinking your toes into smooth sand or walking firm-footed on a surface that appears almost solid. While both properties are commonplace, exactly what it is that makes granular materials change from a flowing state to a "jammed," or solid, state? Whether it's sand on a beach or rice grains in a hopper, being able to predict the behavior of granular matter can help engineers and manufacturers of a wide range of products.

In a study out this week in the journal Nature, researchers at Brandeis in collaboration with Duke University explain how granular materials are transformed from a loose state to a solid state when force is applied at a particular angle, in a process known as shearing. "Traditionally people thought of shearing as a mechanism for breaking up materials," says Dapeng Bi, a graduate student in the Martin Fisher School of Physics. "In this case, we find shear actually drives solidification."

Bulbul Chakraborty, the Enid and Nate Ancell Professor of Physics, and Bi, analyzed an experiment performed at Duke which used photo-elastic discs of two different sizes to represent granular materials such as rice or sand. The discs were placed into a plastic box whose shape could be precisely manipulated and measured. The box was illuminated from the bottom, forcing light through the discs. A polarized lens placed on top of the box revealed the photo-elastic discs creating colorful patterns -- called force chains -- caused by the pressure they received when the sides of the box were moved to create a rectangle. Using a computer program the Duke researchers were able to determine the amount of force that was exerted by the discs on each other.

"The polarized light changes the index of refraction of the materials and makes the patterns non-uniform," says Bi. "We then use those numbers to calculate the forces and the geometry of the contact ​network that the discs formed."

The researchers found that when the shape of the box changed due to shear, the discs exhibited a solid state even without the density changing. This, Chakraborty says, is remarkable because usually it is an increase in density that transforms loose material to a solid. "For theorists like us, these experiments are wonderful because we can see exactly what this system is doing," says Chakraborty. "How these patterns change as the discs are pushed and altered gives us information such as how many contacts each grain makes, and the force at every contact."

Chakraborty says that using this data she and Bi constructed a theory that explains how the solid is being formed. "It's possible that if there was no friction between the discs that they would have been able to slide past each other and not get jammed," says Chakraborty. "We now are performing computer simulations to see if shear jamming will occur without friction."

In an abstract written in 2008 in Jamming of Granular Matter, Chakraborty and Robert P. Behringer of Duke University explained that jamming is the extension of the concept of freezing to the transition from a fluid state to a jammed state. Understanding jamming in granular systems, they say, is important from a technological, environmental, and basic science perspective. A jamming of grains in silos can cause catastrophic failures. Avalanches are examples of unjamming, which need to be understood in order to prevent and control, such as the avalanche that killed pro skier Jamie Pierre on November 13, 2011.

Shearing is a major force in nature, explains Chakraborty. When wind blows over the earth, shearing occurs in the sand. Understanding what shear does, she says, is very important.

"We have a very good theoretical framework as to how water behaves, or ice or air," says Chakraborty. "We don't have any fundamental theoretical framework to predict how sand behaves when the wind is blowing fast or slow."

This information could potentially be used to further understand​ things like avalanches and earthquakes and erosion. "Those are effects of shearing of granular materials," says Chakraborty. "What we're trying to do is get at a basic understanding of how sand responds to shear. Most natural forces are shearing forces."

The behavior seen here is similar to "shear thickening," which has been used when manufacturing bulletproof vests that present as a soft material when worn, but hardens upon impact of a bullet.

"The research shows that friction can fundamentally change the nature of granular materials in intriguing ways," says Daryl Hess, program director for condensed matter and materials theory at the National Science Foundation. "Friction and shear reveal the richness of possible states of granular matter, pointing us down a road paved with new discoveries. These may expose deeper connections between jamming and seemingly unrelated phenomena spanning from earthquakes to transformations occurring in other kinds of matter, like water to ice."

In industries where hoppers are used, like loading rice grains onto a truck for example, jamming can be a problem. One possible solution, says Chakraborty, is to change the traditional shape in order to both prevent and break up jams.

"We need these sort of laboratory-based experiments to construct and test theories," says Chakraborty. "Once you get into an industrial situation things are not controlled enough to understand."

Biofuel Research Boosted by Discovery of How Cyanobacteria Make Energy

Penn State scientists have scoured this cyanobacterium's genome to discover genes that could make alternative energy-cycle enzymes for biofuels and plastics. (Credit: Bryant lab, Penn State)                                                    Science Daily  — A generally accepted, 44-year-old assumption about how certain kinds of bacteria make energy and synthesize cell materials has been shown to be incorrect by a team of scientists led by Donald Bryant, the Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and a research professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Montana State University. The research, which will be published in the journal Science on Dec. 16, is expected to help scientists discover new ways of genetically engineering bacteria to manufacture biofuels -- energy-rich compounds derived from biological sources. Many textbooks, which cite the 44-year-old interpretation as fact, likely will be revised as a result of the new discovery.

Bryant explained that, in 1967, two groups of researchers concluded that an important energy-making cycle was incomplete in cyanobacteria -- photosynthetic bacteria formerly known as blue-green algae. This energy-producing cycle -- known as the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle or the Krebs cycle -- includes a series of chemical reactions that are used for metabolism by most forms of life, including bacteria, molds, protozoa and animals. This series of chemical reactions eventually leads to the production of ATP -- molecules responsible for providing energy for cell metabolism.

"During studies 44 years ago, researchers concluded that cyanobacteria were missing an essential enzyme of the metabolic pathway that is found in most other life forms," Bryant explained. "They concluded that cyanobacteria lacked the ability to make one enzyme, called 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase, and that this missing enzyme rendered the bacteria unable to produce a compound -- called succinyl-coenzyme A -- for the next step in the TCA cycle. The absence of this reaction was assumed to render the organisms unable to oxidize metabolites for energy production, although they could still use the remaining TCA-cycle reactions to produce substrates for biosynthetic reactions. As it turns out, the researchers just weren't looking hard enough, so there was more work to be done."

Bryant suspected that the decades-old finding needed to be re-evaluated with a fresh set of eyes and new scientific tools. He explained that, after researchers in the 1960s concluded that cyanobacteria had an incomplete TCA cycle, that false assumption was compounded by later researchers who used modern genomics-research methods to confirm it.

"One idea we had was that the 1967 hypothesis never was corrected because modern genome-annotation methods were partly to blame," Bryant said. "Computer algorithms are used to search for strings of genetic code to identify genes. Sometimes important genes simply can be missed because of matching errors, which occur when very similar genes have very different functions. So if researchers don't use biochemical methods to validate computer-identified gene functions, they run the risk of making premature and often incorrect conclusions about what's there and what's not there."

To re-test the 1967 hypothesis, the team performed new biochemical and genetic analyses on a cyanobacterium called Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, scouring its genome for genes that might be responsible for making alternative energy-cycle enzymes. The scientists discovered that Synechococcus indeed had genes that coded for one important alternative enzyme, succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase, and that adjacent to the gene for this enzyme was a misidentified gene that subsequently was shown to encode a novel enzyme, 2-oxo-glutarate decarboxylase.

"As it turns out, these two enzymes work together to complete the TCA cycle in a slightly different way," Bryant said. "That is, rather than making 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase, these bacteria produce both 2-oxoglutarate decarboxylase and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase. That combination of enzymes allows these organisms to move to the next intermediate -- succinate -- and to complete the TCA cycle." Bryant also said that his team found that the genes coding for the two enzymes are present in all cyanobacterial genomes except those of a few marine species. Bryant's co-author on the Science paper is Shuyi Zhang, a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State.

Bryant hopes to use the findings of his research to investigate new ways of producing biofuels. "Now that we understand better how cyanobacteria make energy, it might be possible to genetically engineer a cyanobacterial strain to synthesize 1,3-butanediol -- an organic compound that is the precursor for making not just biofuels but also plastics," Bryant said.

Bryant also said that his team's discoveries about cyanobacteria show how science is an ever-evolving process, and that firm conclusions never should be drawn from studies with negative results.

"Sadly, the conclusion that cyanobacteria have an incomplete TCA cycle is written into many textbooks as fact, simply because the research teams in 1967 misinterpreted their failure to find a particular enzyme," Bryant said. "But in science there is never really an end. There always is something new to discover."

The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Genomic Science Program of the U.S. Department of Energy.