Charisma

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...But this voice was somehow different from the others. It was quiet and low, and yet it could be heard above the shouting of the multitude; it was soft and gentle, and yet there seemed to be steel hidden away somewhere in it; it was courteous and full of appeal, and yet there was something grim and frightening in it; every word used was full of meaning and seemed to carry a deadly earnestness. Behind the language of peace and friendship there was power and the quivering shadow of action and a determination not to submit to a wrong. We are familiar with that voice now; we have heard it often enough during the last fourteen years. But it was new to us in February and March 1919; we did not quite know what to make of it, but we were thrilled. This was something very different from our noisy politics of condemnation and nothing else, long speeches always ending in the same futile and ineffective resolutions of protest which nobody took seriously. This was the politics of action, not of talk...

...Glimpses of World History, 1933

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That was Nehru on Gandhi.

I must have read that passage a dozen times by now. And I blogged it too, long ago. The prose is powerful and charming. I wish I could write like that. But that was 'inspired writing'...inspired by a charismatic figure.

That "Glimpses of World History" was written in prison. It was a 1000-page, close-printed affair sold as a cheap subsidized edition. I bought it from Thackers at IIT KGP 45 years ago. And read it sitting by the window in a Sleeper Compartment on my 56-hour punishing journey from KGP to Gudur and back. Unputdownable. My co-passengers in that cabin were curious to a fault :)

Charisma is akin to charm (karishma). It is one of those mystic things which you either have or don't have.

To steal from Somerset Maugham in his "Painted Veil":

"You should be thankful to God if you have it; if not, that others have it for your pleasure"

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Many of our rishis who figure in the Upanishads are charismatic. 

Yagnavalkya, Uddalaka, Janaka, Gargi, Ashtavakra, Narada, Sanatkumara, Bhrigu, and Yama himself charm us by the their sublime utterances...mostly answering questions posed by seekers of intimate knowledge (unlike physics which is ultimate knowledge :)

In 2003, I was collaborating remotely with Edwin Taylor who retired from MIT just then and was busy finalizing his book with John Archibald Wheeler: "Exploring Black Holes". By then we were intimate friends as well. In one of my mails I happened to quote a couple of verses of Yagnavalkya from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:

యశ్చంద్ర తారకే తిష్ఠం చంద్ర తారకాద్ అంతరః

యం చంద్ర తారకం న వేద

యస్య చంద్ర తారకం శరీరం

యశ్చంద్ర తారకం అంతరో యమయతి

ఏష త ఆత్మా అంతర్యామి అమృతః

(yaSchandra taarakea tishThan chandra taarakaad antarah 

yam chandra taarakam na veda

yasya chandra taarakam Sareeram

yaSchandra taarakam anataroe yamayati

easha ta aatmaa antaryaami amRtah)

యః సర్వేషు భూతేషు తిష్ఠన్  సర్వేభ్యో భూతేభ్యో అంతరః

యం సర్వాణి భూతాణి న విదుః 

యస్య సర్వాణి భూతాణి శరీరం

యః సర్వాణి భూతాణి  అంతరో యమయతి 

ఏష త ఆత్మా అంతర్యామి అమృతః 

(yah sarveashu bhooteashu tishThan sarveabhyoe bhooteabhyoe antarah

yam sarvaaNi bhootaaNi na viduh

yasya sarvaaNi bhootaaNi Sareram

yah sarvaaNi bhootaaNi antaroe yamayati

easha ta aatmaa antaryaami amRtah)

And he was so charmed by their English versions, courtesy Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, that he insisted I mail him one verse from the Upanishads everyday so as to reach him by the time he wakes up at 5 AM (Boston Time); which I happily did. This went on and on till I retired and left KGP in 2005.

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All prophets of major religions must have been charismatic while they lived and spoke to their disciples: Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha...

Thank God, Hindus don't have a unique Prophet...so they have a plethora :)

Lord Krishna doubtless had this charisma...

So did Adi Shankara...

Coming to modern times, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa must have had it: he had as many intimate disciples as Jesus had while he lived...and both bred umpteen missionaries in their own way.

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Coming to politicians Churchill had it in abundance...he literally turned the Battle of Britain around by his speeches to his countrymen:

The Battle of Britain has the unusual distinction that it gained its name before being fought. The name is derived from the This was their finest hour speech delivered by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons on 18 June, more than three weeks prior to the generally accepted date for the start of the battle:

... What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour".^[25][43][44]

— Winston Churchill

But so did that wild Hitler have it; and that phlegmatic Stalin :)

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Coming to Physicists, Einstein had it abundantly. 

I once visited our Nepu-da's room in the physics department at IIT KGP. 

Nepu-da was no theoretical physicist...he was just a charismatic Senior Technical Assistant supposed to be mending our electronic instruments glowing red with vacuum tubes (but mostly found fishing by the pond of IIT Employees' Angling Association, intently).

And he had this HUGE portrait of Einstein hanging on his wall. All alone.

I asked him why he was so charmed by Einstein:

"His lion's mane"

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If we come to film stars and netas of our generation, this yarn can go on and on...

So let me terminate it with a sweet apocryphal anecdote on what happened once when one charismatic figure wanted to test another:

Sage Narada wanted to test the charisma of King Janaka and was on his way to Mithila.

He got somewhat tired and took shelter from the sun under a banyan tree on the outskirts of the city.

And lay down on the stark dusty earth as behooves a sage, placing his head upon his folded arm.

And then two belles of the city saw him while on their way to fetch water in their pitchers from the river Gandaki.

And one beauty said to the other (within the earshot of Narada):

"This sage can't sleep without a pillow it seems :)"

Narada heard it and as soon as the belles were out of sight removed his arm from beneath his head.

On their return, the belles saw him, and that naughty lass again said to the other:

"This sage not only loves pillows but also has a keen ego...he removed his pillow...see :)"

And then Narada got up, picked up his veena, and reverted to his abode wherever it was, admitting defeat....

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Acknowledgment:

Today's meandering blog is in response to Professor JK Sharma's Comment:

Amir Khusro was known to write poems on any topic under the sun. Once someone gave him four diverse topics: खीर, चरखा, कुत्ता, ढोल. He composed :

खीर बनाई जतन से

चरखा दिया चलाय। 

आया कुत्ता खा गया 

तू बैठी ढोल बजाय।। 

 Similarly, you can write captivating blogs on any topic.

(You may use this as your next blog.)

Whenever I could catch Sharmajee on the lawn bench of our Gated Community in Hyderabad, I used to spin yarns for hours on end on all sorts of topics under the sun.

Day in and day out...we both were physics teachers with tons of experience in classroom-improvisation (aka bluff) :)

One evening I happened to drive Mrs Sharmaji in my small car in our Chandanagar area on one of her fond shopping sprees for a couple of hours (while Sharmaji was busy working in his home).

And I kept on babbling to her all the time...in my sketchy Hindi.

And got this memorable testimonial from her:

"Shastriji can talk to anyone as suits his listener"

I am also known to be a grim strong silent man with a grumpy face :)

Lemma: "The zeal of the speaker is proportional to the square of the fortitude of the listener"

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