A few weeks ago on television I heard this quote by Bill Moyers "Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvellous." I almost forgot the quote but the word "mundane" somehow kept appearing repeatedly in my mind. Once in a while a catchy tune or some wording from a song seems to get stuck in the head and we keep repeating it. This phenomenon has been explained as a "cognitive itch". You are compelled to scratch it by repeating it. Like any other itch, instead of amelioration, the scratching actually enhances the desire to scratch. One way of getting rid of it is to find out the whole song or the whole experience associated with that fragment.
What has the sound of "mundane" has got to do with my subconscious memory? Suddenly after a few days I remembered that this word is phonetically very similar to "Mandan" and of course I have heard the story of Mandan Mishra many a times when I was growing up in India.
Here is a short version of the story.
In 8th century CE, in Mithila area of India there lived a very learned Hindu scholar called Mandan Mishra. He lived with his wife Bharti. He was an ardent believer in ritualistic religion.
Shankar (who was later known as Adi Shankaracharya) was a young rising scholar of Hindu religion and philosophy who believed in the superiority of spiritual wisdom over rituals of religion. He had debated and defeated many contemporary scholars. In the same vain he came to debate with Mandan Mishra. When he reached the outskirts of his village he came across some women who were washing clothes there. He asked them about the location of Mishra`s home. They said "just go straight, when you see a house where the parrots are reciting the sacred Sanskrit Shlokas, you would have reached your destination."
With that tip Shankar found the house easily. After some persuasion Mandan Mishra agreed for a debate. Then came the matter of choosing a judge. Mandan Mishra was certain that he would easily defeat the young scholar but he thought that if he nominated a judge, people might say that he won because of partiality of the judge. So he insisted that Shankar nominated the judge. Shankar was also sure of the superiority of his logic but he thought that if he chose a judge of his acquaintance, people might accuse him of favouritism. So he chose Bharti, Mandan Mishra's wife to be the judge. The debate lasted for many days covering almost all aspects of Hindu religion and philosophy but ultimately Bharti declared that Shankar had won the debate. According to the custom prevalent at that time Mandan Mishra started preparations to give up his way of thinking and become Shankaracharya`s disciple.
This episode gives a glimpse of the civilised life that existed at that time. People sorted out religious differences by polite verbal debate rather than rudeness, cheating or violence.
It also describes the strength of character of an ideal judge or arbitrator as one who gives verdict based on evidence rising above any self interest. Dr. Radhakrishnan quoted this story in his inaugural speech at the centenary celebrations of Allahabad high court in 1966. Describing Bharti as an ideal judge he said "pure objectivity and fidelity to truth: these were the only things which weighed with her as she gave the judgment in favor of Shankaracharya"
Of course when we first heard the story, the only thing that fascinated us was the fact that Mandan Mishra`s parrots were reciting Sanskrit scriptures. And we were very proud of those parrots. As children we did not know that parrots were just mimicking the sounds.
Sadly many adults still believe in these parrots : the so called gurus of various religions who just repeat the scriptures without really analyzing them with objectivity and fidelity to truth.
More worryingly many parents and educators are again advocating to teach children by rote or diktat. It will be very hard for these children to pierce the mundane to find the marvellous.
