“We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so”
—— Alexander Pope
I am willing to bet that years from now my wiser son and grandsons would be thinking of me as nothing but a fool … And here’s why I think so :
As I watched this video-clip I realised why our ancestors used to advise us … both men and women in Sri Vaishnava homes … to do the daily prostrations on the floor (“Perumal puja Sannidhiyil keezha vizhundhu sevithaL” as we say it in Tamizh ) to the household deities morning and evening at least 4 times each .
In that posture we assume, in fact, more than less, the same physical pose that this medical doctor in the video has demonstrated as being effective for Covid patients to help their lungs cope with the pain or discomfort the infection causes in their lungs.
Instead of the coughing thereafter as he instructs the patients in the video, our ancestors devised for Sri Vaishnava menfolk the practice requiring them to bend down and forward from the waist , hold upper arms and palms over the ears on either side of the head and recite the “abhivandanam” (abhivaadaye…) litany which is really a formal but very brief mode of introducing oneself as identified by ancestral and genetic lineage and markers…
For womenfolk there was prescribed another specific posture of prostration which doubled up the pelvis more than needed for the men … it did not need thus any “abhivandanam”, the reciting of litany that was the “coughing” equivalent for men.
We grew up pooh-pooing all what our ancient ancestors advised us. The habit of daily “Perumal Sannidhi yil sevitthal” or “saashtaanga dandasamarpanam” is hardly ever practised at all by any of us Sri Vaishnavas in our homes and families today. Some of the young members of our community often look upon the prostration as rather uncouth or ridiculous posture and quite unnecessary religious routine… That they do not however feel the same way about the many physical contortions they are happy and willing to subject themselves to in gyms and health or yoga-spas is another matter, of course.
But now in these times of Covid, we are forced to accept the same advice to perform “uncouth postures and ridiculous prostrations” given by expert pulmonary doctors !
What an irony indeed! How the more things change the more they remain really the same 🙏
I’m sure though however that many of us, after all, will still remain rather skeptical and secretly be even derisive about the efficacy of the “Perumal sevittthal” daily routine no matter what!
Sudarshan Madabushi