The only truth is God. The only mission of everyday life is to be one with God, in doing one's daily work. It is a lost game to give attention on to people, institution, and the ways of the world. This is because all the ways of the world are ever changing. They are mere reflections of God. This does not mean that a person necessarily has to close himself off from the world. He can. That way he will be able to see God, if it is as per his temperament. Many masters have been able to do exactly the same. But if it worked out for say Ramanna Maharishi, it did not work the same way for Tagore, for example. Tagore had to play with his words and poetic expression to see God, and be one with Him.
The point is a man has to search God based on his temperament. He just cannot follow others. He is unique and so his path. If he is a go getter, he has to see God in his pursuits, and try to find God in his errands. A person who is a scholar, has to find God in his studies and research. There is only one pole star. Man can operate based on his own temperament, character, and the limitations imposed by the society he lives in. Each can find God in his own path. The point is man has to be one sighted fixed on to God and nothing else.
We spend our days. We meet people, interact with them. We do multiple actions. We plan our work. We execute them. We indulge. We sacrifice. There are millions of the work we enter from morning to evening, from birth to death. In doing each of these activities, it is important not to let the countless differentiation in the gross features in the realm of form, impregnate into one's self feeding just his emotional, physical and mental needs. Allowing this rainbow of expectations, worldly needs, and the varied colorful shades of myriad colors of the manifested world, as specified in the Gita as Kaam, Krodh, Raag, Dwesh, one simple beats around the bush. It is just being enchanted by the mirage. It is not that they are wrong and one has to guard oneself from them. It is not about repressing them or suppressing them. The point is about using them as gateway to reach the invisible Archetype which is the only truth. It is not a mystical abstraction. Rather it is hard core truth. We all know we will die. We all know we will lose all those whom we love. We all know our possessions will rust, break and disappear. We all know our body will be engulfed in weakness, wear-tear and diseases. We all know people change their opinions. We all know it is an impossibility for any one to really know the other from core. One just relates to the other from a mere fuzziness of what his own mind perceives about the other, which is neurologically, psychological and sociologically entire different from the other. We all know, eventually all are alone in this path of life. But, still we tend to expend so much time and energy in the pursuits of the worldly things. One has to be aware of being connected to the higher realm through the nature of things around.
To explain in the most concrete level, it is something like this. When one buys a good book, he does not get enchanted with its cover, binding, fonts, quality of page, the fragrance of the papers, etc. Yes, certainly these have the first impact on the reader. But as one really start reading the book, and drinking the wisdom encoded in the words of the book, one starts relating to a world which is invisible and inspiring. What was non-essential was all visible - the manifest beauty of the book's appearance and make. What was really essential - the wisdom in the mind of the author was always invisible. It was upto the efforts of the reader to really do his job to really understand, apply and appreciate the wisdom. That is an active participation in the part of the reader to be able to really "see" the book.
Today those great men in flesh and blood are no more. Men of the stature of Buddha, Jeremiah, Jesus, Moses, Einstein, Gandhi, Tagore, etc are no more. But their thoughts, their ideals their inspirational work still remains and will continue to do so, helping humanity to be better and realize its full potential till eternity. It is the devoted activity these men entered into to discover the truth about themselves and the nature, which blossomed those perennial flowers of wisdom.
So, it is the Karma - the activity, qualified with the intention and effort to know the truth, is what is important. It is not about what one gets out of the activity, in the domain of form. Because whatever you get in the domain of the form is just a reflection of a hidden truth. For example, as I am writing this article, as I look outside the window infront, I see an expanse of trees swaying in the morning breeze. What is visible to me is an expanse of green land, and multitude of trees. A poet who sees this visible beauty, in the effort to search the invisible truth in this expanse of nature, might visualize his love for his muse, swaying in freedom in the music of her love. A naturalist might see the truth hidden in the form of the nature of the soil, the impact of the trees on the soil and the ecosystem around. A real estate businessman, might be thinking about ways to clean up the forest and raise a multi storied building in its place. All are busy in their own created realities. This one level getting into what is apparent.
The second level is even more profound. For the poet, can he transcend his love for his muse, to the love for that immutable? Can that muse be the archetype of Love itself, rather than a person in flesh and blood? When he goes deep into his feelings he discovers it was not the love for anything in form, which was inspiring him. But it was the love for the hidden immutable archetype of Life itself, that was so inspiring - the songs of the birds, the expanse of the sky, the brotherly dance of the branches of the trees. More creative effort a person applies on what is apparent, more he is able to come home to the truth.
A doctor does not get overwhelmed with the dilapidated condition of a visiting patient. Rather he looks through what is visible, and applies his reason and knowledge of the anatomy of the body, to come to a conclusion. What is apparent to the doctor on first sight of the patient is just an illusion. What he discovers after an active devoted activity is what is truth.
The same applies to the life of a software developer. Bombarded with multiple issues coming every day on the product he is working, he cannot afford to be moved by what is just reported by customers, test engineers, system folks, etc. He has to debug the issue and find out the real cause. In each moment spent in the actual debugging and finding out the root cause, he discovers the truth - the immutable - The God.
The idea is not to get lost by the outer manifestation of life. The outer manifestation of life is a ploy of natural selection to continue the proliferation and propagation of genes. That does nothing greater. Rather, the need is to rise, and grow from a boy to a man. It is the time to grow from a girl to a woman. It is about growing from naive to the Knowing.
It is about shunning the laziness to be passive in life and be impacted by the whims and fancies of the self and the others. It is about being an Arjun; lifting his "Gandiv" and fight the war. Fighting the war is about engaging in a creative activity to know the truth, in the field that suits the temperament of a person. It is about getting involved in work, not just to be busy. But rather to search for the truth, to bring the invisible Archetype to the sensible world.
It is not only about knowing the world around. It also about knowing one's own self. It is also about going deep within and know one’s own self in reality. It is about getting in touch with the latent power of one's own self. It is about discovering the personal manhood and womanhood hidden inside. It is about also finding that aspect of divine hidden in oneself. It is about transcending from intellect to intuition and intelligence. The famous photographer - Pierre Polain speaking about his photographs puts this idea pretty beautifully in his book "Wisdom through lens" as -
"The reality, the truth behind a picture, its idea and sentiment cannot be described because it does not belong to the visible sphere but to the invisible. This is why a photograph has to be seen through he "eyes of the soul" at least as much as with our physical eyes. A photograph is a door, an open passage from intelligible to the sensible, from the invisible to the visible, and looking at its inner nature is looking into a mirror: it can help us discover ourselves; it can help us get to know ourselves. The photograph is a means for the archetype to make its way into the visible and temporal world, and thus looking at the photograph will awaken a profound and mysterious sentiment, which is the echo of the same archetype inside us."
He further says, "The artist is, in fact, the real Prometheus..he does not steal the fire from Zeus to bring it back to humanity, like the divine hero did, but he does "steal" the vision of the archetypes - especially Beauty and Harmony, and makes it perceptible to the rest of humanity through his own art."
So, can a man have the courage to be the Prometheus? Yes, that is what life is for. It is about realizing one's whole self and the knowing the world around. It is about knowing the laws of nature, and being part of the big scheme of things, being creative and taking that small step, which helps man to see Truth, and bring forward to humanity the Truth - in its special form - unique to the expression of the individual.
The point is a man has to search God based on his temperament. He just cannot follow others. He is unique and so his path. If he is a go getter, he has to see God in his pursuits, and try to find God in his errands. A person who is a scholar, has to find God in his studies and research. There is only one pole star. Man can operate based on his own temperament, character, and the limitations imposed by the society he lives in. Each can find God in his own path. The point is man has to be one sighted fixed on to God and nothing else.
We spend our days. We meet people, interact with them. We do multiple actions. We plan our work. We execute them. We indulge. We sacrifice. There are millions of the work we enter from morning to evening, from birth to death. In doing each of these activities, it is important not to let the countless differentiation in the gross features in the realm of form, impregnate into one's self feeding just his emotional, physical and mental needs. Allowing this rainbow of expectations, worldly needs, and the varied colorful shades of myriad colors of the manifested world, as specified in the Gita as Kaam, Krodh, Raag, Dwesh, one simple beats around the bush. It is just being enchanted by the mirage. It is not that they are wrong and one has to guard oneself from them. It is not about repressing them or suppressing them. The point is about using them as gateway to reach the invisible Archetype which is the only truth. It is not a mystical abstraction. Rather it is hard core truth. We all know we will die. We all know we will lose all those whom we love. We all know our possessions will rust, break and disappear. We all know our body will be engulfed in weakness, wear-tear and diseases. We all know people change their opinions. We all know it is an impossibility for any one to really know the other from core. One just relates to the other from a mere fuzziness of what his own mind perceives about the other, which is neurologically, psychological and sociologically entire different from the other. We all know, eventually all are alone in this path of life. But, still we tend to expend so much time and energy in the pursuits of the worldly things. One has to be aware of being connected to the higher realm through the nature of things around.
To explain in the most concrete level, it is something like this. When one buys a good book, he does not get enchanted with its cover, binding, fonts, quality of page, the fragrance of the papers, etc. Yes, certainly these have the first impact on the reader. But as one really start reading the book, and drinking the wisdom encoded in the words of the book, one starts relating to a world which is invisible and inspiring. What was non-essential was all visible - the manifest beauty of the book's appearance and make. What was really essential - the wisdom in the mind of the author was always invisible. It was upto the efforts of the reader to really do his job to really understand, apply and appreciate the wisdom. That is an active participation in the part of the reader to be able to really "see" the book.
Today those great men in flesh and blood are no more. Men of the stature of Buddha, Jeremiah, Jesus, Moses, Einstein, Gandhi, Tagore, etc are no more. But their thoughts, their ideals their inspirational work still remains and will continue to do so, helping humanity to be better and realize its full potential till eternity. It is the devoted activity these men entered into to discover the truth about themselves and the nature, which blossomed those perennial flowers of wisdom.
So, it is the Karma - the activity, qualified with the intention and effort to know the truth, is what is important. It is not about what one gets out of the activity, in the domain of form. Because whatever you get in the domain of the form is just a reflection of a hidden truth. For example, as I am writing this article, as I look outside the window infront, I see an expanse of trees swaying in the morning breeze. What is visible to me is an expanse of green land, and multitude of trees. A poet who sees this visible beauty, in the effort to search the invisible truth in this expanse of nature, might visualize his love for his muse, swaying in freedom in the music of her love. A naturalist might see the truth hidden in the form of the nature of the soil, the impact of the trees on the soil and the ecosystem around. A real estate businessman, might be thinking about ways to clean up the forest and raise a multi storied building in its place. All are busy in their own created realities. This one level getting into what is apparent.
The second level is even more profound. For the poet, can he transcend his love for his muse, to the love for that immutable? Can that muse be the archetype of Love itself, rather than a person in flesh and blood? When he goes deep into his feelings he discovers it was not the love for anything in form, which was inspiring him. But it was the love for the hidden immutable archetype of Life itself, that was so inspiring - the songs of the birds, the expanse of the sky, the brotherly dance of the branches of the trees. More creative effort a person applies on what is apparent, more he is able to come home to the truth.
A doctor does not get overwhelmed with the dilapidated condition of a visiting patient. Rather he looks through what is visible, and applies his reason and knowledge of the anatomy of the body, to come to a conclusion. What is apparent to the doctor on first sight of the patient is just an illusion. What he discovers after an active devoted activity is what is truth.
The same applies to the life of a software developer. Bombarded with multiple issues coming every day on the product he is working, he cannot afford to be moved by what is just reported by customers, test engineers, system folks, etc. He has to debug the issue and find out the real cause. In each moment spent in the actual debugging and finding out the root cause, he discovers the truth - the immutable - The God.
The idea is not to get lost by the outer manifestation of life. The outer manifestation of life is a ploy of natural selection to continue the proliferation and propagation of genes. That does nothing greater. Rather, the need is to rise, and grow from a boy to a man. It is the time to grow from a girl to a woman. It is about growing from naive to the Knowing.
It is about shunning the laziness to be passive in life and be impacted by the whims and fancies of the self and the others. It is about being an Arjun; lifting his "Gandiv" and fight the war. Fighting the war is about engaging in a creative activity to know the truth, in the field that suits the temperament of a person. It is about getting involved in work, not just to be busy. But rather to search for the truth, to bring the invisible Archetype to the sensible world.
It is not only about knowing the world around. It also about knowing one's own self. It is also about going deep within and know one’s own self in reality. It is about getting in touch with the latent power of one's own self. It is about discovering the personal manhood and womanhood hidden inside. It is about also finding that aspect of divine hidden in oneself. It is about transcending from intellect to intuition and intelligence. The famous photographer - Pierre Polain speaking about his photographs puts this idea pretty beautifully in his book "Wisdom through lens" as -
"The reality, the truth behind a picture, its idea and sentiment cannot be described because it does not belong to the visible sphere but to the invisible. This is why a photograph has to be seen through he "eyes of the soul" at least as much as with our physical eyes. A photograph is a door, an open passage from intelligible to the sensible, from the invisible to the visible, and looking at its inner nature is looking into a mirror: it can help us discover ourselves; it can help us get to know ourselves. The photograph is a means for the archetype to make its way into the visible and temporal world, and thus looking at the photograph will awaken a profound and mysterious sentiment, which is the echo of the same archetype inside us."
He further says, "The artist is, in fact, the real Prometheus..he does not steal the fire from Zeus to bring it back to humanity, like the divine hero did, but he does "steal" the vision of the archetypes - especially Beauty and Harmony, and makes it perceptible to the rest of humanity through his own art."
So, can a man have the courage to be the Prometheus? Yes, that is what life is for. It is about realizing one's whole self and the knowing the world around. It is about knowing the laws of nature, and being part of the big scheme of things, being creative and taking that small step, which helps man to see Truth, and bring forward to humanity the Truth - in its special form - unique to the expression of the individual.
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
No comments:
Post a Comment