Month: January 2024

Maryāda Purushotham Rama and the Martial Arts – Control is the key

Vikram M R, , , , , , 2 Comments

Above is a representational of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Art created by Adarsh Jadhav.

The Prāna Pratishta (consecration) of the new Rama Mandir at Ayodhya will happen on 22nd January, 2023. This is 4 days from now, on the coming Monday. As everyone in India and anybody who is interested in India knows, this event is extremely important for a very large number of Indians. The importance is magnified for Hindus, whether or not they are devout. The importance is spiritual, social, cultural, religious, historical and most definitely, political. And for this reason, the very presence of this devālaya (mandir/temple) has its opponents, both in India and abroad. But whether they are celebrating this event or are disheartened by it, no one can ignore it or write down its significance for Modern India, or Bharat.

Lord Rama is one of the most revered Gods for Hindus. In my opinion, Rama’s character is of key significance to practitioners of the martial arts, especially the Bujinkan system of martial arts. This is revealed by one of the adjectives used for Lord Rama. Lord Rama is very often called “Maryāda Purushotham Rama”. The words “Maryāda Purushotham” are an adjective. But as far as I know, they are used ONLY for Lord Rama. Hence, they are almost an alternative name for Rama. In India if you say “Maryāda Purushotham”, no one will have any doubt regarding who you are referring to. This name/adjective of Lord Rama is where his significance for the martial arts stems from. This of course is my opinion. People are free to disagree or have other ideas.

The word “Purushotham” is formed by the sandhi (combination) of the words “Purusha” and “Uttama”. “Purusha” is “man” and Uttama is “the best”. Uttama can also be referred to as “the highest level”. Purusha is not necessarily only “man”, as in the male gender. It can also be “human”. There is another word, “Purushārtha”. This is formed by the words “Purusha” and “Artha”. The four “Purushārtha” are “Dharma”, “Artha”, “Kāma” and “Moksha”**. These are the aspects a human being pursues over the course of a lifetime. These are true for all humans, irrespective of whether they are male or female. Of course, these days, it can include any other gender one chooses to consider. Hence, “Purushothama” when used in reference to Lord Rama, means “the best human”, or “a human of the highest level/order”.

The word “Maryāda” has multiple meanings based on the context of its usage. “Maryada” is the pronunciation in Hindi. In Kannada, we say, “Maryāde”. Maryāda can mean honour or respect. In Kannada, we say, “Avarige maryāde kodu/torisu”. This means, “Show/give them respect”. We also say in Kannada, “Avaru maryādastharu”. This means “They are honourable or respected/respectable people”. So, in this context, “Maryāde” can mean honour or respect. It is generally used when referring to decent, good folk, based on one’s opinion. There is however, another meaning for the word “Maryāda”, which is more relevant to this article.

During the late 80s or early 90s, I remember hearing the following dialogue in a Hindi film; “Apni Maryāda mein raho”. Of course, it could have been “Apni Maryāda mat bhoolo” or something similar, I do not recall exactly. I suspect it was from one of the family-oriented films with actor Kader Khan in the cast, maybe “Ghar ho to aisa” or “Biwi ho to aisi”. I could be wrong, but my brain associated this dialogue with either one of these films or with a film of this genre. These were films that preached how the roles and behaviours of people in model Indian families should be.

This dialogue threw my original definition of “Maryāda” off kilter. The dialogue “Apni Maryāda mein raho” or “Apni Maryāda mat bholo” was used in a heated exchange between two characters, typically one espousing traditional values (an older individual) and another yearning for change due to the suffocation of traditions (obviously a younger individual). It was very clear while watching these movies, that these dialogues meant “Stay within your limits” or “Don’t forget your limits” respectively. So, how could “maryāda” mean “Stay within your respect/honour” or “Don’t forget your respect/honour” in the context being presented? 😀 It made no sense.

It was later that I realized that the word “Maryāda” also meant “Limit”. Apparently, this was the original meaning of the word! It was overtime also used to denote “Respect/Honour”. When maryāda can be used to be mean “limit”, it could also be to denote “boundaries, as used when we say, “do not cross boundaries”.

I suspect this could be because one deserves respect for knowing one’s limits or more appropriately not overstepping one’s limits. Of course, the limits are usually defined by social or age-based constraints. And because one has learnt to limit oneself, perhaps by being content with one’s lot, one deserves respect. So, by setting limits for oneself and following the same diligently, one earns respect. So, the same word came to be used for the two. This purely my speculation and I could be wrong about this.

So, when I was younger, when I heard “Maryāda Purushotham Rama”, I used to think “Rama, the most respected and best among humans”. But I have realized that this means “Rama, the best person who limits oneself”. It could also be, “Rama, the best person, who stays within his own boundaries”. It is as I understand it, “Rama limits himself and hence he is the greatest or first among humans”. This makes sense. Every aspect of the life Rama led can be considered exemplary. He strove to live up to his responsibilities, always keep his word and most importantly remembered that all the rules and laws that applied to his people also applied to himself. This last aspect was of paramount importance.

Rama was a king and hence above everyone else, at least in his own kingdom. So, he could have had a different set of rules for himself or exemptions to the same when compared with those for the citizenry. But he never allowed this. Further, and even more importantly, Rama was an avatāra of Lord Vishnu. This made him a God walking among mortals. So, he could have held himself above everyone else on Earth, even beyond his own kingdom. But he never let his Godliness or divine attributes show. He never used this to any advantage in the course of his life. So, Lord Rama restrained himself from using either his privileges as a king or his powers as a God to his benefit. He lived like any other mortal, going through all the trials and tribulations, if not more.

Thus, Rama LIMITED himself. He set limits on himself; from ever using his powers as king or God, except for the welfare of other people. He never succumbed to arrogance or pride. His self-imposed limits not only prevented his using his powers and abilities to his own advantage over his fellow humans, but also limited him from ever giving into extreme emotions, barring a few rare instances. Even these instances exemplify his being mortal and limiting his own abilities as either God or king. So, he is indeed the very personification of a person who has limited his own excessive use of abilities, because he decided that they would not suit the world he lived in. It was not the purpose of the avatāra either. Hence, Lord Rama is absolutely the one and only “Maryāda Purushotham”!

Above is a photo of Lord Rama from our pooja room. As far as I know, it is a framed copy of an original by Raja Ravi Verma. Many homes have this photo in their respective pooja rooms.

Rama was a God and had all the powers that earlier avatāras like Varāha, Narasimha, Vāmana or Parashurama or the later avatāra of Krishna wielded. But he did not resort to these abilities. How did Lord Rama achieve this? I opine that the answer is “Control”, and more specifically, “Self-Control”. Rama could control his emotions and his abilities. Since he could control his abilities, he could limit his use of the same. Similarly, since he could control his emotions, he could prevent extreme emotional situations that would result in his unleashing his powers. So, it was CONTROL through and through. Through SELF-CONTROL he remained just an ordinary human in his acts and this in turn led him to be able to perform extraordinary acts, demonstrating that he could also CONTROL solutions to issues facing him and those around him, at all times.

Rama lived in the forest, united a divided Vānara kingdom, gained the trust and support of Vānaras in looking for his wife Sita and later in attacking he powerful Asura Rāvana. He achieved the defeat of Rāvana, gained the support of Rāvana’a brother, caused no damage beyond necessary and eventually regained his throne. He suffered quite a bit after this as well. He was separated from his wife, never saw his twin sons in their early childhood and eventually when his children came back into his life, he lost his wife forever. So, his was a life of great achievements accompanied by extraordinary tragedy. Despite it all, he was successful in all his endeavours and remained a mere mortal. This is why he is perhaps the paragon of SELF-CONTROL and being able to find solutions to varied problems, however unsuitable they may be. This is being in CONTROL of the situation and given environments as best as a human can! It is this virtue of “CONTROL” and “SELF-CONTROL” that relates the example of Lord Rama to the Martial Arts.

Sensei Hatsumi Masaaki, the Soke of the Bujinkan focused on Muto Dori since around 2014-15 all the way till the global disruption in 2020. Muto Dori is defined with many variations by many senior practitioners. It is also interpreted with quite a few variations based on what the focus is on, in any given training session. But a common thread is that one should focus on oneself and have control of one’s own motivations and emotions in a combat situation, even while training in class.

The objective was that one should train like one is unarmed even when the opponent is armed. This is even if one has access to weapons. There could also be situations where there are multiple opponents. This is not to say that this training ensures survival in a real situation. But it demonstrates that one has no control over the initial actions of opponents, only on oneself. So, the focus is to control oneself in the best possible manner. This control hopefully allows one a modicum of control over the fight, which will allow one to survive the situation. The control over the conflict situation will vary over time as the opponent(s) are also continuously adapting.

This focus on control is exemplified by a statement that is made by my teacher every now and then, “focus on your breathing”. This statement is used to help a practitioner begin the process of self-control. One is encouraged to actively focus on, and think, of her or his breathing while in a fight, during training. This takes the mind off the other things in a fight. These include, what the opponent might do, what one can do to the opponent, what one’s objective in the fight is, how one wants it to end, what technique is working or not, worry about whether what one is doing is correct or effective, and the like. All of this is mitigated by turning inward. Hopefully, once this happens, the practitioner only moves to survive and makes the opponent do all the work.

In such a situation, if the opponent is not focusing on self-control, hopefully an opening or opportunity will present itself in due course. This opportunity can be used to end the fight. If the opponent is also exercising great self-control, the fight might just end as both (or more) are only trying to survive and not looking to fight at all. Thus, the situation is controlled either way.

A mentor of my teacher’s suggests that control is a vital aspect of the Bujinkan. He is a very large and strong individual (think WWE wrestler large) with several years of experience. He is someone who can use his strength and size to overcome most opponents. But he chooses not to, and this is enabled by his training and the skills developed to achieve control in a physical combat situation. He further emphasizes that this is NOT LIMITED to a physical fight, but to all aspects of life.

The objective is to achieve control of the situation, there need be no doubt regarding that. Control of the SELF is the starting point of the same. The result of this control is, favourable outcomes in every step and stage of life (what is needed but not what is desired). Control of the self leads to control of the situation and control of the situation has consequences which needs control of the self again. It is cyclical or maybe a spiral.

A student of a friend recently trained in Japan with this mentor. I am sharing the statement this student used to share his learning. It was a quote which I am repeating here. It is something Soke Hatsumi apparently mentioned in the past. It goes, “Nothing is supposed to work for you, the goal is control”. This statement encapsulates the importance of control. Control the self, control the situation, control everything.

I had written an article late in December 2022, describing the “Ashta Siddhi” or eight achievements mentioned in Hindu tradition. One of the last and highest of these Siddhi is “Vashitva”. This can be considered to be hypnosis. But in a more mundane situation, I consider this as “control of a situation” when performed by a highly experienced martial artist or maybe a warrior in a real fight. A link to this article is seen in the notes below*. Do refer this article for more exploration of control and its nuances.

When we say self-control, this is not a new idea. In the Arthashāstra by Kautilya (Chanakya), there is sutra which describes the root of happiness/a good life. It consists of four lines. These are seen below. The actual Sanskrit lines along with what they mean, as I understand them, are mentioned. Other cultures might have similar ideas. I am not aware of specific examples. If anyone any, please do share the same.

Sukhasya moolam dharmaha – The root of happiness/a good life is Dharma (the right actions/sustainable actions)

Dharmasya moolam arthaha – The root of Dharma is wealth/good economic condition

Arthasya moolam rājyam – The root of wealth/good economic condition is the State (well governed State)

Rājyasya moolam indriyānam vijayaha – The root of the well governed State are leaders who have conquered (have control over) their senses

Motivations and desires and emotional responses are triggered by the senses. Controlling one’s senses is what we call self-control. It is expected that a ruler or leader or administrator is one who has achieved the same. If and only if this has been achieved can a leader be expected to be able to control all the situations that affect a State. And this control of the situation is where good administration originates. It is thus the same thing as taught in the Bujinkan, even if the latter is more focused on the individual and not on the State or rulers/administrators of the same.

The path is the same; control the self, control the situation. Do this all the time to control every situation, end up with control over everything. This is the objective, not a guarantee. This brings us full circle to Lord Rama. Maryāda is “to limit/limit”, but “Control” is the key. There can be no Maryāda without control. And thus, with control our civilization got Purushothama! And “Control” is what we still strive to achieve.

JAI SHREE RAM!

Above is a photo of an interpretation of Rama by artist Varun Ram, made in 2008. I bought a copy of this artwork in the Bangalore Comic Con 2012 (the first one in Bangalore). It is not a traditional representation of Rama, but one that I greatly appreciate.

Notes:

* https://mundanebudo.com/2022/12/22/the-ashta-siddhi-and-budo/

** “Dharma”, “Artha”, “Kāma” and “Moksha” – “Right actions”, “Wealth”, “Desires”, “Liberation”

A myriad of methods

Vikram M R, , , , , 1 Comment

What is waza or technique or a form? We shall try to understand what that means with the following musings.

We have now trained with many teachers. We can, if we are regular students, over time, generally see a pattern that any teacher uses. This reveals to varying degrees the different types of practitioners of the martial arts.

Some express their learning by exploring the minutiae of the basic forms and apply all advanced concepts to those forms as well. The exploration generally is a consequence of applying the newer concepts to the older forms.

Others express their learning by expanding into other martial art forms to experience the feeling in those. Could this help them see their core martial art “from the outside”? Does it give them a fresh perspective? Or perhaps the core martial art form they train inspired them to try new things and art forms. Is this perhaps the same as applying new concepts to old forms? After all, the forms in other martial arts are also old, as far as their origins go, even if they are not the “old forms” that one trained when he or she started.

Here, we need to remember that the “core” martial art itself need not be the one you started with or the one you train most or the one you picked up last. That is a personal choice which need not remain static.

Still others teach the martial art form to different demographics, like children or adapt the teachings of the martial art form to women’s self-defence. They relearn other fighting forms and there is a free flow of concepts to and from all the martial art forms they train. They might do this by reading the new concepts being taught as a consequence of repeating the old forms incessantly. They may also choose to apply the new forms to varying speeds of training (in terms of faster or slower attacks), varying “intent” behind the attack and defence (harder/deeper strikes). Over this variation they layer the newer concepts to derive a new experience and learning for themselves.

There might even be those who remain students by being pure followers, simply consuming what is taught in class after class and leaving to the “act of following” any evolution they might undergo in their martial learning.

Many others, by dint of having a background in the defence services or law enforcement, see similarities in the way martial movement is similar in the old forms and the modern application. These practitioners experience and assimilate the new concepts differently from those without a similar background and their application of the new concepts does not seems to directly flow to life situations. It is first filtered through their modern martial experience and then applied to life situations.

There are also individuals with backgrounds in medicine, sports and its support ancillaries, and the mind sciences whose initial learning of the old forms itself is coloured by their experiences in their respective professions. The newer concepts always have to go through this experience first, to be assimilated. Thus, it is flavoured at first contact perhaps?

There is yet another class of practitioners, who might be literalists. These practitioners reverse the assimilation process. They apply any learning to life situations first and from there make the martial movement itself an analogy of the situation. For these folk, the learning is almost like a practical class in a “self-improvement” book, with the martial art class being something akin to a game played in an induction class in a multinational corporation. The objective of the martial art form here is material and esoteric grain/growth. With newer concepts being taught, the older forms disappear in their once recognizable avatars. They morph into something used to purely represent a concept.

Thus, we have a whole gamut of practitioner methodology. Each of these affects the way any martial art technique is demonstrated. The form is like any story transferred through time and space. The rendering changes with each translation into a new language. Similarly a form or technique evolves ever so slightly in each transmission.

The variations in the transmission is due to the points focused on by the practitioner/teacher. This in turn is due to the background and method of practice and assimilation of the teacher as we have seen above.

This then leads to a wonderful array of options for students to pick teachers from, based on their own lives. The student may eventually become a teacher and the cycle continues.

Finally, the technique or form then is what was transmitted and assimilated between two individuals in a given place at a given time. It evolves with each rendering and transmission and while the name might remain the same, its appearance and essence (essential focus, key point) changes consistently. This is not very different to an individual changing with growth over time, the name remains the same, the person does not.

The frequency of change depends on the number of practitioners and their growth in turn. Over a long enough period of time, the same set of forms might leads to a whole new school of martial arts altogether. This is just like new species are created with small mutations and very little difference in DNA (humans and chimpanzees for example).

Thus, the form is not something written down in an old book (or a new one), it is what an individual expresses those words as. The form or technique is not something that exists by itself, the form is the person, with all the wonderful strengths and frailties that come with the individual.

The fact that the form or technique is the person is perhaps why grand-masters of schools eventually teach their oldest and most accomplished students concepts that border on the esoteric. They seem to realize over the course of their lives that they need to create a better human to improve the form, and to filter out all that they might seem malicious in the form (person) to lead to a better art form.

This perhaps is because in the case of the martial arts, unlike many other knowledge and arts systems, we deal with weapons, the weapons being the individuals themselves.

We always have to understand who we will use any weapon against. Everyone agrees that a weapon is to be used against an enemy. The hardest thing in life is to determine who the enemy is. There may be many things or people we dislike over the course of our lifetimes, but these do not constitute our enemies. Many of these do not play a part large enough in our lives to affect us to any great degree. They are just irritants, not “enemies”. Enemies are those that affect our livelihoods and our loved ones in a negative manner.

Conversely, it is always a lot easier to identify who we love (deeply care about, admire, respect). The ones we love, we can’t do without. They are our fuel. Also, we as humans might take the ones we care about most for granted. This in turn is seen when the ones we can’t do without change over time. We would love for our loved ones to remain their selves as we love them best, irrespective of how we change. This is not wrong, just human nature. When the ones we care about change for any number of reasons, we can no longer take them for granted, and that does indeed affect our livelihoods. This makes CHANGE ITSELF the enemy. But since CHANGE is non-corporeal, the ones we love might morph into the ENEMY.

This is not an enemy one wants to destroy, just one that should be prevented from changing. Thus, the WEAPON, the MARTIAL ARTIST might really get turned against the ones he or she cares about, to ensure a lack of change, which is JUST A MARTIAL ARTIST WANTING TO BE IN CONTROL of something other than oneself.

We need to bear in mind that the martial artist is not a weapon because of just the physical damage he or she can cause. Martial artists can cause tremendous psychological and intellectual damage due to their training. The transmission method they use with students and interaction methods they use with others due to the points of focus in their training of the forms itself becomes a weapon.

An example here can be planting a specific behaviour in students either consciously or unconsciously that might influence their lives in a detrimental manner (much like a cult does). A student might be conditioned with training to jump when the teacher lifts the finger. This only means that the teacher has to be supremely careful of when to lift a finger, not that the student is the master’s slave looking out constantly if a finger is raised.

The same is true in dealing with non-martial artists, if one sees them as inferior or as targets to experiment on, especially if the martial artist lacks empathy in training the forms.

Thus, in conclusion, waza or technique or form (in their multitudes) is a series of experiments by one upon oneself with the aid of fellow practitioners, teachers and students to hone themselves to continuously adapt to change (with the ability to empathize with one’s surroundings being a part of the adaptation to reduce conflict).

Before I end this article though, I have to add a little detail. This last aspect relating to psychological effects, in my opinion, is especially important in the Indian context. Due to our culture, traditions and our past, a teacher is always put on a pedestal in our lives. This is something that is ingrained in us from the time we are kids, in school and in the stories we are told. This continues through college and to the various people we consider teachers or mentors even much later in life.

In school, we start every day with a prayer* which states that the Guru is Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva (Maheshwara) and Parabrahman and that we offer salutations to the Guru. Of course, “Guru” can be more than just a “teacher”. A Guru can be a mentor, guide, teacher and even equivalent to a parent. When the Gurukula system existed, the teacher was indeed a parent for most of one’s formative years and hence one owed one’s character largely to the teacher. In modern day living, a Guru can be simplistically translated as a “teacher”.

Due to this great reverence for the teacher, the tendency for students of any age to blindly trust the teacher and do everything as stated is great. A student finds it incredibly difficult to disagree with or to say NO to a teacher regarding anything. In this situation, if a teacher is not aware of his or her responsibility to the student, or plain flippant in what her or she states, the potential for causing damage to the student is very high. Hence, “awareness” of every student and the effect one has on her or him is vital for a teacher, including in the realm of martial arts.

If the teacher is raised with Western culture where this relationship between the teacher and the student is not same, this risk is exacerbated. The teacher needs to make a strong effort to first learn the culture of Indian teacher-student relationships before he or she can set out on the journey of teaching Indian students. Beyond this, the teacher needs to always have awareness of one’s own methods in perpetuity, at least with respect to how to it is affecting her or his students. This is a part of the responsibility, whether or not one likes it. It is a consequence of being a martial artist, a weapon and a human.

Notes:

* The prayer, or more appropriately shloka, I referred to earlier is seen below.

Guru Brahma, Gurur Vishnuhu, Gururdevō Maheshwaraha

Guruhu Sākshāt Parabrahma, Tasmy Shree Gurave Namaha

A translation to the above shloka, as I understand it, is seen below.

The Guru is Brahma, The Guru is Vishnu, The Guru is Maheshwara (Shiva)

The Guru is the Brahman himself, I offer salutation to this Guru