Where progress means regress. So what with this looped tuck-in-traffic whine? A book on any of our cities can be titled till digging like the autobiography of archaeologist Howard (Tutankhamun) Carter. Infrastructure construction manically leads to massive destruction. Long-time title-holder Calcutta has been trumped by Mumbai where the coastal road mauGuha and the late Girish Karnad, who went on to lend their clout to the BLF; other committed citizens make this perhaps the only crowdfunded major Indian latest. This time, I barely recognised mall-to-mall carpeted Infantry and Brigade roads. MG Road bling was blindingly un-Gandhian. But design and space elevate the plate-glass jungle. True, tech parks have overpowered the leafy avenues, but Cubbon Park and All Bag retain their wooded splendor. Lured by the siren song of Mysore silk, I braved the jostling neon of a Cinderella-end Commercial Street; then retrieved sanity and memories in the musty charm of the Bangalore Club. Topped by Fish Mole at Cushy, where a portlier Perm, grandson of the founder, still solicitously moved from table to table, drawing his energy from knowing that I serve five generations of loyal patrons in a single day. The more things change, the less remains. But let forget the traffic snarl and raise a toast instead to Cushy famed bacon jam. The attainment of Sama-Rasya, sahaj, an equanimous state of mind, lies at the heart of the Dattatreya-Yadu dialogue in the Bhagavad Purina. King Badu, troubled by his father Yalata decision to divest him of kingship, wanders into a forest, where he sees an avadhuta, a wandering free soul, in ecstatic happiness. Wonderstruck, Badu asks the young enunciate the secret of such happiness. Dattatreya, the avadhuta who has shaken off all the cares of worldly existence, sits the king down and gently reminds him of the need to connect back with nature. Nature itself is the greatest teacher, the Adi Guru, beyond all philosophical and theological constructs. Dattatreya narrates the story of his 24 universal teachers, his gurus, having learnt from the five elements earth, air, sky, water, fire the sun and the moon, the sea, 12 animals, a prostitute, a child, a maiden and a blacksmith. He tells the king of the unique lessons he has imbibed by carefully observing the nature of the five elements. From the earth, he has picked up the need for forbearance and the import of doing good to others; from air he has learnt the value of non-attachment and freedom; from the sky he has figured out the all-pervasiveness of the Self, which yet is untouched by any contact with any object. rom water, he has picked up the need for purity and coolness, as it cleanses everything; and from fire, he has learnt the need for austerity, since the flame of self-knowledge alone can devour all worldly desires. His observation of the moon, which appears to increase or decrease on account of the shadow of the earth, has taught him that the Self is complete and changeless but appears to. 6/18/25, 6:28 PM CSIR crri Typing Test Result https://rkcnaw ada.online/csir-typing/JSA/Eng_test/livepassage.php 1/