'उंटावरचा एक शहाणा' ते 'अष्टदर्शने'

उंटावरचा एक शहाणा
सोन्याच्या घालून वहाणा
भीक मागतो दारोदारी
म्हणतो, "सगळे कंजूष भारी"
- कविवर्य विंदा करंदीकर

माझ्या पाचव्या वाढदिवशी आजोबांनी दिलेल्या पुस्तकातील ही कविता. मला त्यावेळी फारशी उमगली देखील नव्हती. वरवर लहान मुलांची वाटणारी ही कविता म्हणजे दुनियादारीचे मोठे तत्त्वज्ञान आहे. मला वाचनाची गोडी लागली ती सशाचे कान, राणीचा बाग ह्या कवितांमधूनच.

अलिकडेच माझ्या मामंजींनी भेट दिलेले "अष्टदर्शने" म्हणजे तर पाश्चात्य तत्त्वज्ञानाचा छोटेखानी कोशच आहे. उंटावरच्या शहाण्यापासून सुरु झालेली माझी वाचन यात्रा विंदांच्या "अष्टदर्शने"ला पोचली आहे. देकार्त, स्पिनोझा, काण्ट, हेगेल, शोपेनहौएर, नित्शे आणि बर्गसॉ या सात पाश्चात्य व चार्वाक या भारतीय तत्त्ववेत्त्याची ओळख करून देणारे हे पुस्तक अतिशय वाचनीय आहे.

सामान्यत: तत्त्वज्ञान म्हटले की जाडजूड ग्रंथ डोळ्यासमोर येतात. पण ह्या पुस्तकात आठ तत्त्ववेत्त्यांवर फक्त एकेक अभंग आहे. प्रत्येकाची कहाणी विंदा उलगडत जातात. कॉलेजांतून शिकवला जाणारा हा गहन विषय विंदांनी अगदी सहजसुलभ भाषेमध्ये हाताळला आहे. सुरवातीला त्या तत्त्ववेत्त्याची जीवनकहाणी व नंतर
त्याचे विचार काय होते ते दिलेले आहे.

चार्वाकदर्शनातील काही ओळी इथे टंकत आहे.

जड्द्रव्यांचाच । संयोग होऊन
’चैतन्य’ निर्माण। असे होत.
चैतन्य हा असे। जडाचा विकार;
ते नसे स्वतंत्र। असे तत्त्व.
........
......
आत्मा होई नष्ट । माणसाचा.
मृत्यूने द्रव्याचे । होई विघटन
आणिक चैतन्य। नष्ट होई.
आत्मा राहणारा । शरीर सोडून
प्रत्यक्ष प्रमाण । दाखवी ना.
अतींद्रिय आत्म्याचे।अस्तित्व म्हणून
चार्वाक दर्शन ।नाकारीते.
त्याचा जडवाद । नाही नाकारीत
मंगल, उदाच । आणि भव्य.
त्यांचा अनुभव । होई प्रत्यक्षात
चैतन्याला प्राप्त । माणसाच्या.
-चार्वाकदर्शन ( अष्टदर्शने- पृ. ७७-७८, विंदा करंदीकर, २००३)

नास्तिक चार्वाकाने । नाकारला आत्मा
कविवर्य विंदा । तुमचा आत्मा मात्र
कवितांमधून अमर । झाला आहे
मजसारख्या । पामरांना
करीत आहे । मार्गदर्शन
सिंधुदुर्गातील । दीपस्तंभाप्रमाणे

गौरी दाभोळकर ( १५-३-२०१०) 

One Night @ Vangani

One night@Vangani

It must have been a dark, Saturday night in Vangani in the month of March, exactly 25 years ago. I was a typical Marathi school girl in grade 10 who had not gone much beyond the suburb of Borivli. This was just a couple of weeks before my grade 10 examination.

Have you not heard of a tiny village called “Vangani” near Mumbai? Don’t worry neither did i know where Vangani was. Those days there were no google maps. I boarded an extremely over crowded Karjat local that was scheduled to depart at 4:02 pm from V.T. (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway Station!) with water and packed dinner cooked by mother. After two hours of pushing, squeezing and suffocation i got off at a lonely station called “Vangani”. The train journey was horrible. A few village women got off with their vegetable baskets. I was a bit worried if i would find any familiar faces there. There was no return train for another two hours. What would i do if i found no one? Was I going to spend an evening on a lonely platform? A sudden fear gripped me as some villagers on the platform started staring at me. I even wondered if i had reached the right place!

As i was catching up my breath and smelling the freshness of country side air, i saw a handful, young budding astronomers. One of them carried a heavy bag that had a telescope and another one was holding a tripod. They were all in their mid-twenties then. I was the only girl of my age. In my school, girls and boys hardly conversed with each other. However, I managed to gather some courage and joined their gang. After all, I had come all the way for a star gazing night.

This field trip was a part of hobby class organised by "Lokvidnyan Sanghatana". A few months later, some enthusiasts out of this group were to form a brand new amateur astronomers’ group called, the “Khagol Mandal”. Khagol means the “celestial sphere” and Mandal simply means “a group of people”.

I decided to follow them and we started walking through vast grass land. There was not a single tall building. All I could see were one or two huts. After walking for about 20 minutes we reached a house and a large plain area.

The Sun had just set and for the first time, I noticed crescent of the Moon and bright Venus. There were around 20 of us and Mr. Suresh Paranjape gathered us around him. We sat in a circle on dried grass and with the help of a torch beam; he started introducing us the constellations. I had seen sky-maps before and attempted to understand the figures of Tauras-the Bull and Leo-the Lion. I could never imagine anything beyond a rectangle or a triangle. Here, he was telling us stories of each of these figures. We saw the Hunter (Orion) and his Dog(Canis Major). He told us that the western Hunter was actually the Indian Deer (Mrug) and the Dog Star was the hunter (Vyadh) as per our Indian astronomers. Interesting mythological stories from the east and west were narrated. Each star had stories of its own. It was as if a mysterious drama was being showcased. The first session ended at around 9 pm and we had a dinner break. The Moon had set and the sky was pitch-dark. We shared our candle light dinner under open sky. Even while eating I was staring up!

The next session was even more interesting. I could see the Milky Way Galaxy full of uncountable stars. I had only seen it in glossy books in the reference section of our school library. The books which remained in the reference section and we could not even handle them! Here no one stopped me from looking at the real sky. Soon the telescope was set up and we saw the Orion Nebula and the Pleides cluster. As we saw the birth place of stars in Orion, I was thrilled. I had never seen anything more beautiful than that. The owner of the telescope, Rajeev Chitnis must have aligned and focused it hundreds of times so that each one of us could see.

Three volunteers made tea for all of us at around 12 am. Dilip Joshi, a journalist turned astronomer kept us awake with jokes. We were sipping hot tea near the telescope and Rajeev was relentlessly showing us Jupiter, Saturn and many more objects through the telescope.

It must have been well past midnight. I suddenly saw a streak of a shooting star. I had studied the definitions of meteors but had never seen one from where I lived in Mumbai. The experience of looking at a meteor was very humbling. Though there were millions of stars, I kept waiting to get a glimpse of a shooting star as its beauty really impressed me. That was a turning point in my life….i compared my life to a meteor! I decided, it does not matter how long i live, i must make sure that i make others happy when they see me.

I performed well in both my board examinations but i chose to study pure Physics so that i could study Astronomy. I purchased a telescope with my scholarship money so that I could observe Comet Halley in 1985-86. For five years, i used to go to Vangani with Khagol Mandal every month except during monsoons. Unfortunately, i did not complete research in Astrophysics as i got tempted to take up a lucrative job in a software company. However, after a short stint in software industry i turned towards teaching. For the past eleven years I have been teaching Physics and Astrophysics which I enjoy very much.

Even now, I wonder how my mother would have trusted me to go with a bunch of bachelors to an unknown place like Vangani? It was this trust and the love that she packed for me along with that dinner box that has protected me throughout my life.

I did forget Astronomy during the birth of my little boy Kabir and other family responsibilities. Two years back i purchased a nice Celestron which remained untouched under the bed due to busy life. Recently, Kabir learnt to point it to the Moon with his small hands. When i feel he should go to bed on time, he goes out with the bulky apparatus. Though the light pollution in Bengaluru is terrible, he is thrilled to catch a snap of the moon.

I realize that the circle of celestial sphere(Khagol Mandal ) and also my dream is complete!!

Note: Khagol Mandal (खगोलमंडल) now has several branches and many members all over
Maharashtra. 
For more information check out

www.khagolmandal.com