F-R-I-E-N-D-S!

More than
Just a well wisher,
An understanding soul,
Being that much needed support,
That warm kinship!

More than
Those happy moments spent together,
About passing weekends together,
About going movies in group,
The treats and parties,
Those painful birthday bums,
The irritating pranks and PJs,

More than
That ability to know each other’s nerves,
Being able to confide,
About the pains, ecstasies and adventures,
My Friends,
You all have been much more to me!

You were a beacon,
In the night dark,
Helping me to discover myself,
Who was I, who was I not!

It was not that much, how similar we are,
But it was more about how different were always were!
That made me feel -
You are so special – So am I.

You all were those multiple open windows,
In the deep dark cavern of my mind,
Filling in light of thousand hues!
Enlightening my being,
With your thoughts, your perspectives, your takes!

Being bound with so many of you,
Near, far, across distant lands,
It was always a feeling of being beyond the confinement of body,
It was like being alive in an extended realm,
Beyond the constraints of
Time and Space!

Each of you going to places -
With your own unique stories of success!
Makes me realize the paths varied,
To the same destination of being fulfilled, happy and relevant!

Your achievements and feats,
Makes me aware of what is possible!
Always they are the guiding constellations,
When I get lost in the darkness of my follies!

Though we might not see each other,
Though we might not be in touch,
But that mere awareness that you are there,
In some part of the world,
Makes me feel connected and known!

Who I am, what I stand for,
Are concrete and real,
Just because you are present!
Or else I would have been unknown
Another human being, lost in anonymity!

You are among those very few in this world,
For whom I need not to prove,
Each time, creating my relevance!
It is just a relaxing being –
Being cozy in the feeling of being accepted!

In the indifferent universe,
You are the buffer of providence for me!
I know it does not matter to the universe,
I am alive or dead!
But it will at least leave a scar,
In one way or other,
In your heart, when I am no more!
That feeling makes me feel pampered!

We have been, and will be –
Bands of connected souls,
Working together doing something great!
Which my single hand, mind and heart,
Would have never been able to create!

This journey of life,
Have been like a celebration long,
For only you were there,
With all merry makings, noise and songs!

You were the only means for me to realize,
What love, faith and hope is,
When we talked and laughed together!
Also you were the only means for me to realize,
What sorrow, abandonment, melancholy is.
When we never talked and avoided each other!

You made me realize how wretched the ego is,
You made me realize how slimy the mind can be,
For only those episodes of rift and friction!

Thank you All!
For being my friend -
Sailing the journey of life,
Together with me,
In the ruthless and real – the stormy sea of existence!
Helping me discover myself and Life!

God Bless you All!
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Fakir and his Love

After a month long travel
And stay with yogis
In the caves, forests and falls
In the Himalayan ranges
Did the fakir return
To the bustle of Kolkata.
For his dearest love
Was waiting for him!

Yes, he was deeply in love!
Had he known no love
More profound, more seducing,
Ever Before!

The Fakir was back to his work
As the chief advisor of
Research in Biophysical Sciences,
At the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics!
His domain was his love,
His long found beloved!

It was a very long and toiling story of the Fakir!
From the hilly and harsh landscapes of Kabul,
To the serenity of the Hooghly!
From the hopeless nights of poverty,
To the bright halo of international recognitions!

The Fakir with his cyan turban and white robe,
With flowing long silver beard
Walked to his chamber ardently.
In no time was he deeply immersed
In the world of his beloved
In the wonderlands of his only Love –
The Biophysics!

He was in love!
He had chosen his beloved for all his births!
All was from an insight
During one of those deep
Satori on one of those special days,
In the long hours at the laboratory,
At the Presidency College,
Watching a whole new world,
Under the electron microscope!

It was a revealing insight!
A conscious decision had risen,
To dedicate ones whole life
To the domain of BioPhysics!

It was during those days
When he had lost all he loved!
In search of love and strength
The Fakir had then kept wandering!

At times he was conned
By the illusory passions.
There was once an apparition
Of the angel with the Most Beautiful Eyes
And then was the seduction of the
Gold and riches
And There was once the eerie
Pull towards power and status!

All his loves were ephemeral,
All abandoned him in due course,
Just to make him craving for more,
Left alone in heartbreaking solitude!
What a mirage was that!
Fooling one with elegance and style!

And then in an existential vacuum
He was all alone in the journey of his life.
The Fakir was in search of
His true love. His true beloved!
An accompaniment of meaning and joy!

Decided he to transcend beyond
The debilities of humans,
Their just self preserving nature and their ego,
And natural selection’s hidden agenda at play!
Going beyond one’s push and pulls of genes!

The Fakir chose to dedicate the remaining days of his life,
To the unfaltering love for his domain of Biophysics!
Now his life was only about
Exploration the unknown horizons of Biophysics!

His domain became his medium
Of expression of his love – his creativity!
20 years have passed!
He is a veteran in his field today!
He has his own contextual world woven around him,
Shielded away from the objective world of forms!
It is his own world, His own creation!
He and his Biophysics and numerous research work!
Today he has contributed new theories,
New findings and new insights in the domain!
He has enabled humanity to be empowered with new knowledge!
New avenues of thoughts and expressions!

With his love today he was able to
Create a legacy for the posterity –
An indelible footprint of his
Left behind in the sands of passing times,
Towards eternity!

He knows his love is divine,
The lesser mortals and their ways,
Were not just the avenues right,
To waste his time, his energy and passion!

Today he is just a Fakir,
All alone lost in his own world!
He feels redeemed.
For he was able to express his love to the fullest!
He was able to advance Biophysics to the realms unchartered!

Life was simple,
An opportunity to be in FLOW,
Every moment,
Each time with a new challenge –
A scientific puzzle to un-ravel!
It was straight. It was predictable.
It was about fixing the missing jig-saws,
Completing his life to a masterpiece!

Now there was no complexity of human emotions to tackle,
None were the cravings of the ego,
Cravings, lust, desires – all were done away with!
Certainly a clean canvas to carve out the painting of life!

He needed no material possession to boost his ego,
Neither was a need of any guarantee of his security and safety!
He was just a Fakir!
Nothing to lose, nothing to hoard!
He was just lost every moment,
In his world of Biophysics,
In a meaningful and creative trance!

Often he used to walk down the streets of Kolkata!
For he found an age-old spirit there –
The spirit of creativity,
The spirit of invincibility,
The spirit of achieving victory for humanity!
Some people called him
The merchant of dreams,
Some called him the Sage Scientist!
Some just addressed him – The Fakir!

He was dynamic!
He was ever evolving!
Un-attached to the baggage of human existence.
He was like a river –
Adapting himself to whatever route possible,
Never forgetting its objective : sea!
So fragile at its source,
Gradually gathering strength!
After a point, its power is Absolute!
In its journey,
It was not touched by a hammer,
Or ripped to shreds by a knife!
The strongest sword in the world
Couldn’t scar its surface!

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Light House

This poem is a sequel to the previous Simoni’s poem – Faith, Hope and Love –
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2011/07/faith-hope-and-love.html

THE LIGHT HOUSE

Suddenly woken up from deep sleep,
Simoni found himself in between a sandstorm!
It was pitch dark night,
Sparkling sky, with twinkling stars,
Silently gazing on the show below!

From nowhere had the fiery sandstorm come!
Not an object to stand,
All strewn hither and thither!
The crumbled letters of love,
The dagger, the flute, the paint brush.
All flew in air, strewn over places!
All lost years back from the stranded caravan,
Now being dug up from deep beneath the dunes of sand!

All was in topsy-turvy.
Simoni could not stand straight,
Was he put to his knees by the ruthless wind,
The ruthless storm!

Remembered Simoni all of a sudden
He had to reach the distant land of Andrea,
To see the Sun!
He had to make his destiny,
Walk his path,
To his dream land of Andrea!

Perplexed by the crushing storm,
In between the stormy air
Of abandonment, heartbreak,
Indifference and wickedness,
All around hopelessness and pain,
Simoni looked on to his trees –
Faith, Hope and Love,
Gazed hi in askance to them!

In unison, did sing in chorus,
The Faith, Hope and Love –
“Hold on to your dream,
Don’t get swayed by the illusion of the storm,
Head ahead to the land of Andrea,
You Beautiful Soul!”

And lo!
In the darkness pitch black,
Of the maddened night,
Laid a steady streak of light,
From the Faith, Hope and Love,
Paving a calm, sturdy and defiant path to Andrea!
Simoni set on to his journey,
Like a light house was there strong straight and tough,
His Faith, Hope and Love,
Showing him the way to
The legendary city of Andrea!

The heavens joined in the enterprise!
The veteran stars up there
Like constellations of light houses,
Were twinkling with renewed brightness,
Showing Simoni his way!

Among the veterans were
The love of art,
The love for love,
The passion for knowledge,
The perseverance of focused
And un-daunted pursuit for finesse,
In a domain, an art, or a vocation!
Also was the pride of originality,
The urge to create!

Of the long gone caravan,
The mortal lovers, friends and brethrens,
Had all perished not withstanding
The ruthless storm of time!

Only what remained were
Those immortal twinkling veterans,
Like steady light houses,
Giving strengths to passing travelers
Of the likes of Simoni,
Who were alive to achieve a victory for the mankind!
Who were alive to carve out their destiny!

Beautifully the cosmic light houses,
In the heart of the ruthless storms,
In the wilderness of thousands of sand dunes,
Guided Simoni steady and strong,
To his beloved city of Andrea!

The wicked storm watched with amazement!
Not one hair of Simoni was touched,
Amidst all commotion everywhere,
Was he guarded by the veterans,
From the kingdom of the Gods!

Walking his magical journey,
Simoni realized-
Only what was real and eternal,
Was the spirit – his veterans – the mystic lighthouses!
All the rest was just a passing illusion,
Winnowing ups and downs,
Pushes and pulls,
In the anxiety of the temporal storm!

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Stranger deep Inside

Beyond the conscious world,
With all its superficial make-beliefs,
And phony stories,
Constructed with the
Mediocre and in-efficient world of Language,
Meets my identity with the Stranger within!

Know I very well my identity,
Its name, status, possessions, successes and failures!
But have known I never - that Stranger,
Lost in the darkness of the inner crevices of my self!

With its own strange idiosyncrasies,
The Maverick stranger,
Sings his own song,
Walking on his own drums,
Absolutely irreverent of my conscious self – my Identity!

Known I have never,
Although tried a million times!
Anything more about the Stranger within,
More than his song,
The same song, the same tune!
With an intangible pain, and in-comprehendible fervency!

Does not he get bored of the same way of himself?
Sublime and lost forever,
In deep trance in his own tune,
Music from his soul!

Like a defiant brat,
Continues he, his mindless ways,
Irreverent of the world and its ways!
You Stranger deep inside,
Listen to me, or die!!

Gives he no heed to my call.
Continues he on his solo journey,
The walk by the river Nile!
Deeply lost in his solitude,
And his song!

The Stranger deep inside me,
Never have I understood him,
What he dreams, what he desires!
For keeps he strolling with stoic indifference,
To the ways of the world!

When I write my poems,
That Stranger deep inside
Looks at me, Says he none,
Just flows into the words,
Beautifully crafted with the ink on the paper!

Not aware who is he,
Sad he is or joyous,
Never has he spoken to me.
That every ecstatic wanderer
The Stranger deep inside!

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

Like a Sunflower…

Like a Sunflower,
That follows every moment of the Sun,
So, I turn towards you,
To follow you – my Joy!

Like the purple mimosa,
Recoiling at the sight of the deer,
The vagabond deep inside,
Surrenders to thou elegant grace!

Like the humble drops of falling rain,
With no desire, and no ambition,
Fall freely from the stony cliff of ego,
Here I fall freely to the depths unknown!

Like the relief of the sigh released,
Feeling the weight on the limbs,
Sink I to the solitude of aloofness,
Eternity of insignificance and obscurity!

Dis-integrated to dust,
Being one with reminiscence of that rapturous Joy,
The lovelorn soul becomes one with the song,
The Song of the Eternal Togetherness!

In unison with the memories,
One with the intoxicating fragrance from
The deep recesses of the long gone past,
 Dances the soul, one with the Joy – ecstatic to the core!

When the self does not exist,
But only that exists,
Is that in-expressible ardor,
That trance of attraction!

A beautiful world,
Where nothing exists,
But only that Joy, That Bliss.
 That never-ending symphony,
In the theater of the heart!

In the loneliest juncture of the journey,
The traveling soul is but ecstatic,
For he is not alone, But is eternally escorted,
With the closeness of those inebriating intimacy of thy thought!

Like none in the physical realm,
Is that Love eternally sublime,
Handicapped it is for none,
In the expectation of a manifested reality!

It lives its own life,
Free of captivity of the limitations
Of the world of form,
Eternally throbbing with life!

With its own pride, and Its own grace,
Silently passes by the soul,
Births after births,
Millennia passed by.
Deep inside in the innermost core,
Lies on the venerated altar,
The flowers of dedication,
Of that immortal Love!

Like a sunflower,
Deeply bound with the love of the Sun,
My soul eternally woven with the Angelic phantasm,
Is one with the Joy of that sublime Love!

Seasons come and seasons go,
Sunflowers grow, and then wilt,
The Mortal cage around the soul,
Decays away in its own death!

But that surreal and love for my Inamorata,
Lives forever, One with the elements – forever and ever!
Long after this flesh and body decays away to dust,
Long after this identity is lost in obscurity!
Forever young and free – throbbing with the sheen of Life!
Keeps flying with spread out wings,
The ethereal and pristine,
Love of Thine!

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

Faith, Hope and Love

In the dreary desert
Dry, lifeless and real,
In the center of limitless
Dunes of dry sand,
There was a small oasis,
In which there were 3 large shady trees,
They were –
Faith, Hope and Love!

Faith was a huge green tree,
With millions leaves,
Giving a shady solace,
To anyone coming by.

Hope was a tree of crystal.
Her leaves were but a million solitaires!
Each hanging in its own shiny charm!
Amidst darkest of the nights,
The solitaires would sparkle,
Giving light to even the blind!

And then was this tree –
The most special one!
Lovely red were her leaves,
Shiny and luscious red!
The branches and the bark
All made of pure gold!
Decorated were the red and soft leaves,
With delicious yellow fruits,
Ripe to the core,
Intoxicating by mere sight,
Filled with nectar of immortality!

In this dry desert of reality,
These three trees always were there,
Standing with the same beauty and glory,
Young and bright!

Thought most mortals
They were just another mirage,
Among the many in the desert!
None took any notice,
None gave any chance
To Faith, Hope and the Love!

Michel Simoni walking down the desert,
That scorching noon,
Was tired!
He was in a pilgrimage,
Across the desert,
To the far off land of Andrea!

He was tired, hungry and thirsty.
Sitting down, by one of the sand dunes,
Simoni saw the magical trees,
Far away as a pleasant apparition!

He thought it was just a mirage.
But then decided to believe it for real,
Started Simoni walking towards
Faith, Hope and Love!

He reached the trees,
After hours of walk,
Under the scorching Sun,
On the dry land!

Spellbould was he
To see the grandeur,
The majesty and perfection!
Three trees in all their glory and youth,
Stood there welcoming SImoni!
 They were real, they were true!!

Simoni went to Faith,
As an obvious option,
To take a respite from the scorching sun of reality,
To the cool shady breeze of the green leaves of Faith!

Simoni sat under the tree.
With heartfelt gratitude
Relaxed he under the shade!
His thirst quenched,
Tiredness disappeared,
Ecstatic was he,
Sitting on the lap of Faith!
Faith caressed the sweaty forehead of Simoni!
Pampered by the affection,
Simoni asked the magic tree –
Who are you?
“I am Faith”, the tree continued,
“The am a sent by God,
To make you mortals get a feel,
What presence of divinity is like.
I am a dimension of your existence,
Beyond your rational mind.
I am what your eyes cannot see,
You mind cannot reason,
But your heart can touch.
I am your only remaining connection,
With the Infinite!
You often dismiss me as just a mirage,
But I am the source of everything
That you are awed with, and ever will be!”

Enchanted with Faith,
Simoni looked towards the inviting Hope!
Still he was lying down
With a feeling of profound peace,
With Faith!
Hope with her soft voice,
Greeted Simoni,
And introduced herself –
“I am Hope. I am that silver lining,
That urges you mortals to take that extra step,
Which differentiates you from rest of creation!
I keep the lamp lighted,
Spreading light of victory and workability,
In the darkness of failures and falls!”

Seeing the conversation in full swing,
Love could not stop, but join in!
“I am Love, Simoni!! Nice to see you here!”,
The tender tinkling seducing voice,
Glided softly directly into the heart of Simoni!
Love continued –
“I am Love. I am what binds all life forms together!
I am the choice you mortals have at your disposal,
At any time, to come to!
To have a taste what it feels to be God!
And how it appears to be in heaven!!
Some shun me in the provoked by the ruthless reality.
But they forget the reality is what you create!
I am Love. I am the essence of life!”

No more was Simoni hungry,
Nor he was thirsty!
All his tiredness evaporated.
Rejuvenated by life giving nectar,
Of the aura of the magic trees,
Simoni was in trance!

It was already dusk by now.
Like a whole life spent in a few seconds,
Simoni had never experienced this peace before,
Not even when he was lost in his sculptures!

Intoxicated with the bliss,
Peace and tranquility like never   before,
Simoni  slept on the lap of Faith,
Guarded in the affectionate warmth,
By Hope and Love!
Eyes closed,
With a smile on his face,
And Halo on his head,
Simoni was sanctified by the grace,
Of Faith, Hope and Love!

More poems on Michel Simoni - 
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/search/label/SIMONI%20SERIES
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

Respite from Reality

Far.. very far away from
The ruthless world of reality,
I sink into the blissful solace,
Into the seducing intoxication
Of the pristine Love,
In the world of dreams –
The perfect world!

Untouched by the virus of hatred,
Unscathed by the bitterness of jealousy,
Un-burnt by the fire of ego and pride,
Un-ruffled by the basic instincts of
Downplaying others and their worlds.
Like a headless chicken,
Living blindly with the sole agenda of
Just preservation and proliferation
Of Self and one’s own likes –
With an eerie sense of self-righteousness!
Here I am having a respite from Reality!
Into the coziness of my own world!

Far..very far away from
The ruthless world of reality,
I sink into the blissful solace,
Into the seducing intoxication
Of the pristine Love,
In the world of dreams –
The perfect world!

I know this world is not your reality.
I know this world does not feed,
Neither does it provide shelter.
Helps it none,
For you to rise the social ladder,
To earn yourself trophies of materialistic pursuits!

But for me my world of dreams,
That zone of peace,
I hold so dear!
Where I am all alone,
All carefree and flamboyant!

My world decorated with the
Eternal glitter and shine
Of those sweet memories of days gone by,
With the mushiness of my ethereal Love,
Enthralled by the grace of
The unforgettable
Those Most Beautiful Eyes!
Blessed by the glory of
The musical laughter,
Straight from the harp of the Venus!
Graced by the fragrant apparitions
 Of those transient feelings of
The deepest of bonds!
That heavenly feeling of
Being made for each other!

My world – away from the ruthless reality,
Where there is nothing,
But just Love, care, and understanding!
Where mind is set free –
Beyond all fears, prejudices, hatred
Rudeness, ego, narrowness, and selfishness!
Where my existence is beyond being just a human -
Limited and weak!
To the world of limitless reach,
Powered by the feathers and Halo
Of a million arch-angels!
Where all that is real is only Love, only Love!

My world – away from the ruthless reality,
Where the noise of
All the baser debilities of being human,
Is silenced by the over-powering
Symphony of compassion, and un-conditional love!
Where the dullness of white canvas of self utilitarian existence,
Is beautified by the strokes of million colors of
Matured understanding and affection!
Where the saddening frowns of the experience,
Is mellowed by the childlike innocence!

A world through the eyes of my little daughter,
A whole new world,
Decorated with the fairy tales of love and beauty,
In the stories of Cinderella, Alice, Mougli, and Barbie,
Weaving out a new level of being alive,
Sparkling with the twinkle of a love filled eyes!

A world where all are mine,
And I for all,
An extended family the world seems,
Kith and kin – everyone and all!
Where it is more important to love –
Truly and Passionately Love,
Than being loved in return!
Where it is all about giving ones pure self,
Towards a cause noble!
Where the most important thing to achieve,
Is a victory for mankind!
Where the most coveted place,
Is a respectable niche in others heart!
Where only what matters is
What I give,
To the world and its people!
Where it is irrelevant I am sad of happy,
Where it is irrelevant I am loved or hated!
Where others come become me,
Where the world is a single family,
Of all loved ones – sharing love and compassion!

Far..very far away from
The ruthless world of reality,
I sink into the blissful solace,
Into the seducing intoxication
Of the pristine Love,
In the world of dreams –
The perfect world!

Into that heaven of freedom,
Dear friend,
I invite you too!

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Fakir and his Riches

Everything peaceful and saffron was
In the Garb of the luscious Dusk -
The open and generous Sky,
The Passionate gushing fall,
Playing in background from far off mount -
The background buzz of the throbbing life!
Those flocks of little birds,
Together returning to their nests,
With their loved ones beside!

The Fakir rowing the boat,
On the muddy water of the Hooghly,
With his saffron sack on his back,
Blue turban tied neatly up,
His ivory white robe from shoulder to toe,
With the right crease impeccably made.

The evening breeze conditioned
With the peaceful cold water of the river,
Flows along with his white cascading beard.
Gently rowing the boat,
The Fakir sings his song new –

Rejoice I my riches –
The invisible, held secured,
Far away from the reach of any mortal,
Deep down in the private chambers of my heart –
My Memories, my Dreams, my Inspirations, my Love!

Rust they none,
Plundering cannot be done,
Far away from the eyes of any,
To either appreciate of envy!
My riches are only mine,
Till the last breathe in my life,
And then continuing the journey,
In the life beyond!

Time I have none,
Heeding to the provocations of the world,
For busy am I –
Creating more such riches,
Every aware moment of my life!

My riches are not earthly,
But are works of art –
Straight from the abode of the Gods!
They appear to me in forms many –

Either in Inspiring words of another soul,
His invigorating songs or his poem,
Showing me a new reality,
To start a new journey!

In the gallant beatitude,
In the remembrance of that special one,
Long lost in the humdrum of causal tides.
Re-affirming to me every moment –
It is not bad that it’s all over now,
But it is that profound joy,
That atleast it happened sometime!

In that pristine involvement,
To create that destiny,
That victory for the mankind!
Combating consistently
Against all human slithering,
Advancing steadily to a direction Inspiring!


In that tireless pursuit,
Of wisdom, knowledge and
Exploration of the unknown!
Each time discovering something new,
Being more aware,
Knowing life in a new way!

Sinking in that feeling of belonging,
Among the hills of Kabul,
Breathing my own air,
Being wet in my own rain,
In the process of feeling myself,
Part of the flowers, the stones, and the wind,
Of my beloved motherland!

His riches don’t get over,
Neither have they perished!
With every share,
Multiplies it many folds!
With every new song,
Sharing the good news
With souls many!

Keeps humming his tune in the windy evening,
The Fakir, rejoices at his eternal riches!

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

Me and my Follies

With countless imperfections,
Me with all my follies,
Tread down the road of life.

For some I am a boring block,
For some a laughing stock,
For some a maverick fool,
For some just an antic!

Jester being for so many,
Me with all my follies,
Tread down the road of life.

With all shortcomings,
The insignificant soul in me,
Is alive and throbbing still with life.
Expectant eagerly
For that song to reverberate,
That rhythm to entice,
That color to dip all around,
In its embrace of exotic redness!

 In this long journey,
Winnowing with the wind of time,
Waiting with patience,
Toiling hard keeping the pace,
Up the thorny uphill,
I keep making the way to that
Lustrous Sparkling crystal castle -
Eluding its elegance
Amidst fog and mist!

I fall down on the dust,
Repeatedly hurting and bleeding,
But again stand I,
Start walking up the winding hill,
Shining against the gleaming Sun,
With the sweat of painful toil!
Stop not I creating, what inspires me,
For that is not a just a good to have dream,
But a reason to be!

I am happy or sad,
Bleeding or Laughing –
Hated or loved,
Does not matter at all!
For it is irrelevant to the universe
And its indifferent ways!

What just matters
Is the destiny I am busy creating –
The destiny for me, the world, and its people!

A lonely traveler,
In the long journey,
Me with all my follies,
Tread down the road of life.

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

Athena and Vikaro

It was early 15th century,
On one of those early morn
Michel Simoni - sitting on the top of Mt. Vesuvius,
Was contemplating design
Of his flying machine!
Deep lost with his canvas and his pen,
Sketching the  machine
To fly in air,
Was Simoni in his Zone!

The sky was crimson
Dawn at her seductive best
Simoni suddenly was
Distracted by the
Gushing Vikaro - The westerly wind.
Passed he in a jiffy
To the open sky
To hold the falling Athena – The lovely Albatross!

And LO!!
Simoni could see
How like a godsend artist
Vikaro held his beloved Athena
With his strong hands,
Making her fly – saving her the fall!

Enchanted was Simoni,
By the grace, the style and the perfection!
Vikaro with great care of a lover,
An ingenuity of an engineer,
With the finesse of a sculptor,
Created that perfect aerofoil
Holding his dear love – his Athena
Steadily gliding in the open sky,
To the gates of heaven!!

Athena – the Albatross –
White like the Archangel’s Halo!
The grand expanse of her flawless wings,
With deep black most beautiful eyes!
Was making the seven heavens proud,
Gracefully surfing through
Like a Simoni’s Perfect  Stroke!

All the while,
Vikaro did held Athena,
With his sinew strong,
And heart brimming with love,
Kept he his position strong,
Holding Athena all along,
In rain and sun,
In thick and thin,
Morning and Night,
Taking her to places new,
Worlds far!

All pain did Vikaro endure,
Limitless agony without a frown!
For he was getting the meaning of his life,
Making his love fly high and high!

Athena knew none of Vikaro!
Unaware of the balance and support,
Created by Vikaro,
Kept she soaring unknown of
Vikaro, his love and his toil!

Every morn, every night,
Did Simoni see the spectacle of heavenly love,
Athena flying to the heavens new,
On the shoulders of Vikaro,
Un-known of his ardent love!

 Athena proud of her flying feats,
Was confident more!
She knew that all for all her craft and excellence!
She knew it was all she,
And no role was played by any other.
In pride and defiance of the world,
Athena kept soaring new heights!
Till she reached the limits of seventh heavens!

There things were all bright and beautiful.
Athena did not need to fly for reaching heights.
It was a new world,
Effortlessly was Athena did dance,
With Angels and Gods!
No push of the westerly wind
Needed she!
No support of the lowly Vikaro was required!

Athena was happy and fulfilled at her achievement!
She knew it was all her personal feat.
Proud was she of her abilities,
Arrogance beautified her countenance further!

Now, Vikaro was all alone,
His beloved was no more for him.
Life was empty – flying aimlessly,
Hither to Thither!

Simoni called on Vikaro,
Asked him why did not he stop Athena by?
Why did not he express his love to her?
At the least, she should know your ardent love!
Encountered Simoni with rage,
To the flowing westerly wind!

Vikaro smiled with ease and mock,
Said he to Simoni –
You earthly artists,
What you know
About Love without strings!
Love for me is a worship offered,
My care and love
Are tulips of blessings dedicated at
The altar of my Love – My Athena!
I do not need it to be repaid,
For my love is priceless!
My love bears no strings,
Bears it no expectation!
I live to love,
Not to get love in return.
With another scar in his heart,
Did Vikaro fly to his seclusion –
Far away, hidden behind the Vesuvius!

Simoni smiled at the heavenly show!
Got he the answer how to fly -
His flying machine must resemble
The dance posture of Athena and Vikaro!
People call it by names many,
Some call it aerofoil!

Became Simoni busy with his design-
Conceptualizing the first flying machine!

Athena was busy with the Gods,
Among the gold and pearls,
Making merry with music and love

All flora and fauna was busy with
Everyday chores!
Indifferent was the universe,
For there was this lowly Vikaro,
Hidden behind the Vesuvius,
For it was no more relevant,
To Athena, to Simoni, and the world!
Died Vikaro in silence, known by none.
There was silence everywhere –
An indifferent and impersonal Silence!

PS - More poems of Michel Simoni - 
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/search/label/SIMONI%20SERIES
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

Just in Search of a Story..

The merchant of dreams,
From the hills of Kabul,
Wanders by the terrains, forests, and rivers,
Like a vagabond!

He is empty handed,
No house for him,
No shelter, no one knows him.
In this grand city of Joy!

Just a stranger to
The Indifferent Universe he was,
None to love,
None to hate!

Just he has a bag
Hanging from his shoulder,
A bag filled with dreams!
Sells he the dreams,
To children, men and women!
Since ages he did the same –
That was his profession!
He was a merchant of dreams.

Many great men had written about him,
Since ages long by!
The one that comes to my mind,
Is Tagore’s rendition of “Kabuliwala”!

Had he a little daughter – Rukhsana!
Left he her in Kabul, when she was just 2.
For the call of his work,
His profession of selling dreams to the world!
Many dreams he sold,
Helping mortals many,
In their journey of life!

Today Rukhsana was 20,
No news had he from her,
Nor his family, or his people.
He posted the money order
As usual to the same address.
This time, he decided to send some more,
Thought he - might be it was her wedding month!

He was a fakir,
Singing the tunes of the Spirit,
On the railway platforms,
Or the crowded streets of Kolkata!
Some people despised him,
Some came for newer dreams,
Some blessed him,
Some hated him giving despised look.

He kept singing his tune,
Several songs of the Spirit had he,
With new tunes and words!
Kept he selling dreams to people who came!

But today no song had he in his lips,
The tunes were too dried up!
Took out from his rags an old tattered paper,
Imprinted on it was a little hand of his baby Rukhsana!
When she was just 2.
He was missing his daughter!

“Ali!!”, he shouted.
Wanted he a new story,
A new dream, a new song!
This time for none –
But just for himself –
Only for himself.

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

Darwin - His life and his teachings

It is certainly true that Darwinism can help make a person saintly. No doctrine heightens one’s consciousness of hidden selfishness more acutely than the new Darwinian paradigm. If you understand the doctrine, buy the doctrine, and apply the doctrine, you will spend your life in deep suspicion of your motives.
That is the first step toward correcting the moral biases built into us by natural selection. The second step is to keep this newly learned cynicism from poisoning your view of everyone else: to pair harshness with leniency towards others; to somewhat relax the ruthless judgment that often renders us conveniently indifferent to, if not hostile to, their welfare; to apply liberally the sympathy that evolution has meted out so stingily. If this operation is inordinately successful, it might result in a person who takes the welfare of others markedly, but at least not massively, less seriously than his own.
Some people worry that the new Darwinian paradigm will strip their lives of all nobility. If love for children is just defense of our DNA, if helping a friend is just payment for services rendered, if compassion for the downtrodden is just bargain-hunting – then what is there to be proud of? One answer is- Darwin – like behavior. Go above and beyond the call of a smoothly functioning conscience; help those who aren’t likely to help you in return, and do so when nobody’s watching. This is one way to be truly moral animal. Now, in the light of the new paradigm, we can see how hard this is, how right Samuel Smiles was to say that the good life is a battle against “moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice”; these are indeed the enemies, and they are tenacious by design.
Another antidote to despair over the ultimate baseness of human motivation is, oddly enough, gratitude. If you don’t feel thankful for somewhat twisted moral infrastructure of our species, then consider the alternative. Given the way natural selection works, there were only two possibilities at the dawn of evolution:
a) That eventually there would be a species with conscience and sympathy and even love, all grounded ultimately in genetic self-interest,
b) That no species possessing these things would ever exist.
Well, a happened. We do have a foundation of decency to build on. An animal like Darwin can spend lots of time worrying about other animals – not just his wife, children, and high status friends, but distant slaves, unknown fans, even horses and sheep. Given that that self-interest was the overriding criterion of our design, we are reasonably considerate group of organisms. Indeed, if you ponder the utter ruthlessness of evolutionary logiv long enough, you may start to find our morality, such as it is, nearly miraculous.
Having crafted a moral measuring stick, Darwin gave his life a passing grade. “I believe that I have acted rightly in steadily following and devoting my life to science.” Still, while feeling “no remorse from having committed any great sin,” he had “often regretted that I have not done more direct good to my fellow creatures. My sole and poor excuse is much ill-health and my mental constitution, which makes it extremely difficult for me to turn from one subject or occupation to another. I can imagine with high satisfaction giving up my whole time to philanthropy, but not a portion of it; though this would have been a far better line of conduct.”
It’s true that Darwin didn’t live the optimally utilitarian life. No one ever has. Still, as he prepared to die, he could rightly have reflected on a life decently and compassionately lived, a string of duties faithfully discharged, a painful, if only partial, struggle against the currents of selfishness whose source he was the first man to see. It wasn’t a perfect life; but human beings are capable of worse.

PS - The above is an excerpt from the last part of the book - The Moral Animal from Robert Wright.

______________________________________________

On Religion and Evolution

The theme of strict self-governance, the control of animal appetites, appears again and again in the world’s great religions. Also widespread, is the doctrine of brotherly love that Darwin found so beautiful. Six centuries before Jesus, Lao-tzu had said, “it is the way of the Tao..to recompense injury with kindness.” Buddhist scriptures call for “an all embracing love for all the universe..unmarred by hate within, not rousing enmity.” Hinduism has the doctrine of “ahimsa,” the absence of all harmful intent.
People tend to say and believe things that are in their evolutionarily ingrained interests. This does not mean that harboring these ideas always gets their gene spread. Some religious doctrines – celibacy, for example – may dramatically fail to do that. The expectation, rather is simply that the doctrines people latch on to will have a kind of harmony with the mental organs natural selection has designed. “Harmony”, admittedly, is pretty broad term. These doctrines may, on the one hand, slake some deep psychological thirst (belief in an afterlife gratifies the will to survive); or they may, on the other hand, suppress some thirst so unslakable as to be a burden (lust for example). But in one sense or another, the beliefs people subscribe to should be explicable in terms of evolved human mind. Thus when diverse sages manage to sell the same themes, the themes may say something about the contours of that mind, about human nature.
Donald T. Campbell, one of the first psychologists to get enthusiastic about modern Darwinism, has suggested as much. In an address to the American Psychological Association, he spoke of “the possible sources of validity in recipes for living that have been evolved, tested, and winnowed through hundreds of generations of human social history. On purely scientific grounds, these recipes of living might be regarded as better tested than best of psychology’s and psychiatry’s speculations on how lives should be lived”.
Some have noted that, while these religious ideas must by definition have a kind of harmony with the brains they settle into, that does not mean they are good for those brains in the long run. Some ideas, indeed, seem to parasitize brains – they are “viruses”, as Richard Dawkins puts it. The idea that injecting heroin is fun keeps infecting people by appealing to myopic cravings, rarely to the ultimate advantage of those people.
Besides, even if an idea does spread by serving people’s long term interests, the interests may be those of its sellers, not its buyers. Religious leaders tend to have high status, and it is not beyond the pale to see their preachings as a form of exploitation, a subtle bending of the listener’s will to the speaker’s goals. Certainly Jesus’ teachings, and Buddha’s teachings, and Lao-tzu’s teachings had the effect of amplifying the power of Jesus and Buddha and Lao-tzu, raising their stature within a growing group of people.
The great religions are at some level ideologies of self-help. It would indeed be wasteful, as Campbell suggests, to throw out eons of religious traditions without inspecting it first. The sages may have been self-serving, like rest of us, but that does mean they weren’t sages.

The concept of evil – still people seem to find it useful, and the reason is that it is metaphorically apt. There is indeed a force devoted to enticing us into various pleasures that are (or once were) in our genetic interests but do not bring long term happiness to us and may bring greater suffering to theirs. You could call that force the ghost of natural selection. More concretely, you could call it out genes. If it will help to actually use the word evil, there is no reason not to.

When the Buddha urges digging up the “root of thirst”. He isn’t necessarily counseling abstinence. Certainly there is talk in many religions of abstinence from various things, and certainly abstinence is one way to short-circuit the addictiveness of vice. But the Buddha put his emphasis not so much on a laundry list of proscriptions as on a generally austere attitude, a cultivated indifference to material rewards and sensory pleasure.

This fundamental defiance of human nature is encouraged in some measure by other religions. The Hindu scriptures, like Buddhists and Christians, dwell at more length, and more explicitly , on withdrawal from the realm of pleasure. The spiritually mature man is one who “abandons desires,” who “has lost desire of joys”, who “withdraws, as tortoise his limbs from all sides, his sense from the objects of sense.” Hence the idea man as depicted in the Bhagvad Gita: a man of discipline, who acts without worrying about the fruits of his action, a man who is unmoved by acclaim and by criticism. This way the image that inspired Gandhi to persevere without “hope of success of fear of failure.”

That Hinduism and Buddhism sound so much alike is not shocking. The Buddha was born a Hindu. But he carried the theme of sensory indifference further, boiling it down to a sever maxim – life is a suffering – and placing it at the very center of his philosophy. If you accept inherent misery of life, and follow the teachings of Buddha, then you can, oddly enough, find happiness.

In all these assaults of the senses there is a great wisdom – not only about the addictiveness of pleasures but about their ephemerality. The essence of addiction, after all, is that pleasure tends to dissipate and leave the mind agitated, hungry for more. The idea that just one more dollar, one more dalliance, one more rung on the ladder will leave us feeling sated reflects a misunderstanding about human nature – a misunderstanding, moreover, that is built into human nature; we are designed to feel that the next great goal will bring bliss, and the bliss is designed to evaporate shortly after we get there. Natural selection has malicious sense of humor; it leads us along with a series of promises and then keeps saying “Just Kidding.” As the Bible puts it, “All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.” Remarkably, we go our whole lives without ever really catching on.

The advice of the sages – that we refuse to lay this game -  is nothing less than an incitement to mutiny, to rebel against out creator. Sensual pleasures are the whip natural selection uses to control us, to keep us in the thrall of its warped values system. To cultivate some indifference to them is one plausible route to liberation. While few of us can claim to have traveled far on this route, the proliferation of this scriptural advice suggests it has been followed some distance with some success.

It remains true that pleasure is ephemeral; that its constant pursuit is not a reliable source of happiness; that we built not to easily grasp this fact; and that the reasons for all this are cleared in the light of new Darwinian paradigm.

There are scattered hings in the ancient scriptures of an understanding that human striving – after pleasure, after ewalth, after status – is yoked to self-deception. The Bhagvad Gita teaches that men “devoted to enjoyment and power” are “robbed of insight.” To pursue the fruits of action is to live in a “jungle of delusion”. The Buddha said that “the best of virtues is passionlessness; the best of men he who has eyes to see”

This grasp of our naturally skewed perspective is bound up with exhortations towards brotherly love. For a premise of those exhortations is that we are deeply inclined not to view everyone with the charity we extend to our kin and ourselves. Indeed, if we weren’t so deeply inclined, if we didn’t buttress this inclination with all the moral and intellectual conviction at our disposal, you wouldn’t have to start a whole religion to correct the imbalance.

PS - The above is an excerpt from the book - The Moral Animal by Robert Wright.

______________________________________________

Simoni’s Soliloquy

At the fag end,
In the final scene of the drama of his life,
Aged 95, the old and fragile Michel Simoni,
Sitting on this favorite couch,
Was going through his old poems!

Having lost most of his memories to the aging brain,
Was he peeping into his now unknown past,
Through the window of those old poems,
In his old book he had labeled, “Old and Useless”!

Reading with deep involvement,
Like a young and devout fan of himself,
Did Simoni flipped through the pages,
Of his tattered diary of poems.

His eyes struck to one poem,
Written in gold ink, in that red page!
Took that up Simoni,
Strained his eyes close to the book,
Started reading he, his own poem,
Unknown of the past,
Like a new reader discovering a new poem!

As he started eyeing down word by word,
Of the age old poem,
Simoni started to recite, in rhythm,
Like a long forgotten song,
Remembering each word – one by one!

Simoni started with his tattered voice –

The Crowning Glory of the heavens,
From the distant lands of the Gods,
Descended thou in the lands of mortals,
In the world crowded by lowly creatures,
With their lowly ways!

Wretched and poor,
Insignificant and ugly heart of Simoni,
Hit was it with the arrow of the cupid,
When he one night bumped on those Most Beautiful Eyes!
It was a full moon night,
Walked the divine damsel,
By the river Nile.

The ordinary Simoni,
A poor blacksmith then,
Busy was he with hammer and anvil.
Was he trying to turn an iron rod.
And lo!!
Was there a strange apparition!
The iron rod turned to Gold Harp!
For some divine light had fallen from the sky!

Raised his head the young and poor Simoni,
And was he dazzled to his innermost core!
Was walking down the river bank,
The divine damsel,
With the Most Beautiful Eyes.

Could not he believe his own eyes,
Simoni pinched himself,
Thought he it was just a dream!
But alas!
It was not a dream, A reality was it!
An unwanted, ugly, insignificant, poor and dumb
Blacksmith was in love with
The divine damsel with the
Most Beautiful Eyes!

Saw Simoni the divine,
Stride the banks,
Could he see the jealous moon,
Of the beauty walking!
The craving Nile,
Yearning to have a moment’s
Touch of goddesses’ feet!
In the heavens he could see,
All Gods standing in awe,
Lost in the Beauty of the damsel divine!

Smiled Simoni at the sight.
Held he his heart throbbing,
Looked down he on his anvil,
His hammer and the fire.
He knew he was lowly,
But he was in love,
Deep and Profound Love,
Something he never had known before!

Wanted he to jump and run towards
The damsel divine,
Kneel before those Most Beautiful Eyes,
And sing a song of love,
Offering his heart – right then and there!

But stopped Simoni!
Realized he – His beloved was a heavenly delight!
Though he was in trance – deep in love,
How can the heavens match a tattered gutter?
How can there be spring in a desert?
How can solitaire be in the finger of a destitute?
How can an illiterate know what a poem is?
How can the lowly sand under the damsel’s feet,
Even dare to think to be part of her bosom!

Realized he with a smile,
His lowly stature!
Brought face to face,
The stark impossibility of the
Innocent desire of his heart.

Simoni patted his heart,
With sunken voice,
Most eyes,
And lump in throat,
Said he in a sad soliloquy,
“Heavens don’t meet the Earth,
Look down o innocent soul,
Be busy with the anvil, hammer and fire,
You lowly Blacksmith!
You are no God,
For the Goddess with the Most Beautiful Eyes,
Will never embrace in love,
Your parched, ordinary and lowly soul!

The love stuck heart,
Of the poor and broke Blacksmith,
Laughed aloud,
“Where is written the Goddess shall love in return,
For any love offered by the lowly mortals?”
“Is not it once in a eons privilege,
To have been graced by the glance of the damsel divine,
Having the heart of one,
Nurture the seed of love for those Most Beautiful Eyes?”
Is not it love’s labor returned,
With the iron rod turned into the Gold Harp,
With the glance of those Most Beautiful Eyes,
Having got the privilege to feel that love,
Profound and pristine,
In the lowly, insignificant and this worthless Heart!
Certainly may the Gods not attach me to the damsel divine,
For shall it diminish the beauty and grace of this world!
With the artless pairing of the heavenly finesse,
By an artless, soiled, scarred, ordinary and poor Heart!

Continued the Blacksmith,
Hitting this hammer to the iron rod,
Kept aside he the Gold Harp,
Hidden deep in his heart!

Out of sight of all mortals, sky, and earth,
Was the Gold Harp placed,
Wrapped with velvet of an ageless love!
With great care and affection,
Motionless and cold,
On the throbbing altar,
Of an empty and silent Heart!

The poem was over,
Simoni gave a silent smile,
The Gold Harp was still there,
In the same place,
Motionless and cold!
After so many ages!!

He was happy and fulfilled!
World had changed,
Now not he a Blacksmith anymore,
He was not poor and lowly!
Kings of seven lands,
Venerated him as the greatest Sculptor in the World!

But was he in love,
As ardent as ever!
That night by the river Nile,
Appeared to him as just yesterday’s dream!

[More on Simoni Series - 
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/search/label/SIMONI%20SERIES]

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Shattering Dynamics

When a glass breaks and shatters into pieces, a unique thing takes place. The surface area of the glass pieces as a whole increases exponentially. More surfaces get exposed to the atmosphere and light. Repeated reflections, refractions and total internal reflections happening in this conglomerate of the broken glass  pieces gives a perception of glitter, sparkle and shine.

Yes that is true that the original shape of the glass article has been lost. But having lost that fixed shape the glass particles explore a new dimension of existence – having exposed to maximum air and light – allowing them to really experience the world better – if you would. I call such a process as “Shattering Dynamics”

On similar lines, if drawn an analogy here is a famous saying from Andrew Harvey

“If you're really listening...If you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world. Your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; Its purpose is to burst open again and again so it can hold ever more wonder!”

This concept of, “burst open again and again” is a dramatic expression of the process of breaking into pieces. The event of shattering down into pieces appears as an opportune process of bursting open into a whole new realm of being able to absorb, experience, feel and appreciate life and what it has to offer, in a more profound way.

This even signifies an eventual crushing of one’s ego; the state of being guided by Freudian “Id” - A way of life which was expressed by Dawkins in his book – “Selfish Gene”. 

Evolutionarily, humans were designed selfish. But then with millions of years of evolution, there has been an interesting attribute of cooperation and collaboration also imbibed into humans. Might be such a bent of mind was necessary for humans to evolutionarily participate in bigger and more complex Non – Zero games. Such a proclivity towards cooperation appears certainly the design of natural selection to proliferate more and robust genes through eternity.

Irrespective of what Natural Selection’s hidden agenda is, it is a fact that humans like to cooperate and collaborate. They – if given appropriate triggers – they would be ready to shatter into pieces – lose out their self interest and self forms – and be available to creation of a magnificent collage! Taking part in a “Shattering Dynamics”

Somewhere, something is hidden which overtakes that pride of self ego, and helps a person to be a meaningful part of a big picture! She is available to bursting open again and again so it can hold even more wonder!

When a lover transcends his selfish lust and desire for self gratification from his beloved, and sets her free – to be what she wants, to go where she would, to act what she likes, even does not care if she hates him, he creates a “Shattering Dynamics” in his life, and the life of his beloved. Here the lover has allowed himself to be shattered to pieces – abandoning his self ego needs and pride, and surrenders in his entirety to his beloved, and her whims and likings. Such a state of immense immersion in love probably has led to creation of magnificent works of arts from men in love like Shakespeare, Tagore, Keats, Coleridge, Wordsworth, etc.

Such examples of “Shattering Dynamics” are very much visible in history of great and awe-inspiring creations like Google, Wikipedia, Open Source Revolution, Facebook, Android and many more! Classic illustrations of the shattering experiences are beautifully expressed by Kabir in his songs. 

The deep motivation under these shattering experiences might be given several names – love, devotion, likings, inspiration, awe, loyalty,  adventure, explore, creation, innovation etc. But it certainly is a unique virtue deeply engrained in humans. By design there is an un-selfish sheen created on human psyche – which yearns to be expressed. 

Designing a cooperative system – be it an organizational process, a legal regime, or a technical platform is immensely dwarfed if the makers rely on monitoring, rewards, and punishments. Their efficiency is limited by information gathering techniques. On the other hand systems that harness intrinsic motivation and self directed cooperative behavior don’t need to limit themselves to knowledge of what people will do. Every participant becomes his or her own monitor, bringing insights and initiatives to the task – whether or not someone is monitoring behavior.

I see it as a universal tendency in humans – to grow, learn, and create. This is what makes humans so special. Always there is an urge to break free – explore the un-chartered, experiment the unknown. This deep propensity to evolve towards a greater complexity is what makes humans to do different things. One such thing is to affiliate to the “Shattering Dynamics” – Shattering ones old self, in a desire to have a new collaborated self which is greater, nobler and awe-inspiring. Over millions of years, the genes of humans have observed it work. This assurance that two is always better than one, is hard-wired in the DNA of humans. This deep seated belief, allows humans to become a social animal. This infact is the reason humans are still alive in its excruciating journey of evolution in an ever increasing ruthless Nature.

There is this omnipresent unified spirit in humans to collaborate, cooperate, and consider oneself as a part of the whole – as the broken glasses take pride in having got shattered, but belonging to an inspiring collage! 

Evolutionary Psychologists attribute such a strategy as another natural selection’s agenda to proliferate healthier and greater number of genes. That might be true. But more important than the root cause of this phenomenon, is the phenomenon itself! It gives an awareness of the prevalent “un-selfishness” and “un-conditionality” apparent in human psyche. It is of lesser importance whether the source of such un-conditionality is a deep seated conditioned self oriented ploy of the genes. 

______________________________________________ 

Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Zone of Solace

Michel Simoni with all his moments of
Creativity and Toil –
Busy creating Novelty,
In Idea and work!
Seeps down into
The Zone of Solace!

The Zone which is so special,
Where his mind stops,
And heart takes over!
When there is no action, no doing
Just Being, just in-action!

Where he starts
Thinking and feeling
Experiencing and enjoying
Through his sense of being –
His entire body,
His presence, his memories,
His thoughts, his ideas,
His imaginations, his gratitude!
His love and his pains!

Deep in the darkness,
All alone, with eyes closed,
Sits he in trance.
Invokes he his inspirations,
His love and longing,
His fulfillment about what he has,
His aspirations, desires and dreams!
Feels he the strong attraction
To the fulfillment of his dream!
To the world when he will be no more,
In blood and flesh,
But will always be immortal,
In his sculptures, his songs, his poems!

He with profound silence,
Winnowing in his deep breath,
Expresses he, his heartfelt gratitude,
For being alive!
He hugs his heart, kisses his mind
And thanks with deep emotions,
For being the way they are!

Calls he the human legacy,
Left by his lineage,
Left by the civilizations great!
As footprints on the sands of time,
Since thousands of years before his arrival,
To the scheme of things!
Hugs them he with a grateful heart!
Thanks he them for being there always for him
For drawing strength and inspiration!

With head bowed down,
Expresses he with lowly heart,
His veneration and reverence,
To the Nature and its mysterious ways!
For churning out the evolution of this universe,
Its stones, mud, air, water, and the various forms of Life!

Far away eons apart,
With brimming eyes of affection,
With surrendered heart,
Blesses he those Most Beautiful Eyes,
For being part of his soul,
Births after births,
Incarnations one after other
Spreading across eternity!
His inspiration for life!

He is alone in that pristine zone,
No one to distract his trance!
His most precious possession that is!
Which only death to hide!

Today he might be broke,
He might be alone.
Youth and riches all gone by,
With the passage of years.
All youthful shine,
Might be crumbling gradually
In the wrinkles of his countenance,
World might be changing
Towards greater and greater
Degree of indifference!

But he smiles and sits in peace,
With his eyes shut,
Cherishing his zone of solace!
For he knows,
Richer he than the Emperors of the worlds,
Fear has he none,
For his gem – his zone,
None can snatch,
Neither it can rust,
Not it can age!

Brimming with Passion,
With inspiration, life and sheen!
Sinks Michel Simoni,
Into his seducing trance,
Away from the world,
Deep into his own –
His zone of solace!

[More poems of Michel Simoni -
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/search/label/SIMONI%20SERIES ]
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Best of Freud..

What is best in Freud is his sensing of paradox of being a highly social animal: being at our core libidinous, rapacious, and generally selfish, yet having to live civilly with other human beings – having to reach our animal goals via a tortuous path of cooperation, compromise, and restraints. From this insight flows Freud’s most basic idea about the mind: it is a place of conflict between animal impulses and social reality.

One biological view of this sort of conflict comes from Paul D. MacLean. He calls human brain as a “triune” brain whose three basic parts recapitulate our evolution:
1.    A reptilian core – the seat of our basic drives
2.    Surrounded by a Paleomammalian brain – which endowed our ancestors with , among other things, affection for offsprings
3.    Surrounded in turn by a neomammalian brain – This voluminous neomammalian brain brought abstract reasoning, language, and perhaps selective affection for people outside the family.
Like many neat models, this one may be misleadingly simple; but it nicely captures a critical feature of our evolutionary trajectory: from solitary to social, with the pursuit of food and sex becoming increasingly subtle and elaborate endeavors.

Freud’s “Id” – The beast in the basement – presumably grows out of reptilian brain, a product of pre-social evolutionary history. This “superego” – loosely speaking, the conscience -  is a more recent invention. It is the source of the various kinds of inhibition and guilt designed to restrain the id in a genetically profitable manner; the superego prevents us, say, from harming siblings, or from neglecting our friends. The “ego” is the part in the middle. Its ultimate, if unconscious, goals are those of the id, yet it pursues them with long-term calculation, mindful of superego’s cautions and reprimands.

Congruence between the Freudian and Darwinian views of psychic conflict has been stressed by Randolph Nesse and the psychiatrist Alan T. Llyod. They see the conflict as a clash among competing advocacy groups, designed by evolution to yield sound guidance, much as tension among branches of government is designed to yield good governance. The basic conflict – the basic discourse – is “between selfish and altruistic motivations, between pleasure seeking and normative behavior, and between individual and group interests. The functions of the id match the first half of each of these pairs, while the functions of the ego/superego match the second half”.

All told, Freud’s scorecard is not bad: he has identified lots of mental dynamics that may have deep evolutionary roots. He rightly saw the mind as a place of turbulence, much of it subterranean. And, in a general way, he saw the source of turbulence: and animal of ultimately complete ruthlessness is born into a complex and inescapable social web.

But when he got less general than this, Freud’s diagnosis was sometimes misleading. He often depicted the tension at the center of human life as essentially between not self and society but self and civilization.

In reality, it has been a long, long time since nay of our ancestors enjoyed “no restrictions” on these “instincts”. Even chimpanzees must weigh their predatory impulses against the fact that another chimp can be a “potential helper”, as Freud put it, and thus may be profitably treated with restraint.

The point is that repression and unconscious mind are the products of millions of years of evolution and were well developed long before civilization further complicated mental life. The new paradigm allows us to think clearly about how these things were designed over those millions of years. The theories of kin selection, parent-offspring conflict, parental investment, reciprocal altruism, and status hierarchy tell us what kinds of self-deception are and aren’t likely to be favored by evolution. If present-day Freudians start taking these hints and recast their ideas accordingly, may be they can save Freud’s name from the eclipse it will probably suffer if task is left to Darwinians.

[Excerpt from the book The Moral Animal by Robert Wright.]
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Solitary Traveler

The solitary traveler,
In robe blue,
White beard flowing down
As a fall of wisdom,
Winnowing on the passing breeze!

In the full moon night,
The path lit by the eternal fire,
Showing the way ahead,
Tread the man – the institution – the grace!
All alone he was,
With a song in his lips,
And Memories in his heart!
Fond and old..
Memories from distant lands,
Distant dreams and distant desires!

He was old,
Fragile and wrinkled.
But had he nurtured inside…
Deep inside in his self,
A young heart over-brimming with love,
Overflowing through eternity,
Ardent and passionate,
Love of his,
From the distant lands, the distant dreams,
That sparkling smile -
That avalanche of happiness!
Those Most Beautiful Eyes -
The life giving radiance of Morning Sun!
Those affectionate glance –
Like the drops of the first monsoon,
On the parching land!

He was on his solitary journey,
Along him was none,
All left behind,
Far away from him..
Beyond his mortal reach
In the realm of form….

Universe wanted it that way.
For he had to part,
Part from what he loved the most!

But, little did the stars know,
His love was beyond
The Constrained and constricted,
 Realms of reality!
What appeared to be parted
Eons apart,
Was deep inside his heart,
Deep inside his thought,
Very much with him,
With every breath of his,
Swinging on the flowery hammock,
Caressing his being alive!

With him lived ever after,
As his own self,
Being part of his heart and Body,
Mind and Soul!
His love, his passion, his ardor, his reason to be alive –
Those Most Beautiful Eyes!
Imparting spark of life to his existence!

And Bravo!
His love, his passion, his longing,
Transcended the cage of his heart!
Broke the captivity of his mind,
The clutches of his soul, mind and body!
Got expressed that profound love,
In the form of his creations –
His poems, his sculptures, his songs!

World thought it was
Michel Simoni and his genius mind!
But the truth knew only him,
Not even the Gods!
It was only that long gone by memories,
Of The Most Beautiful Eyes,
That profound attraction,
The sacred love,
The pristine longing,
Purest in its form,
Un-touched and un-seen!

That divine force,
Just flowed through Michel Simoni!
He was just a medium,
Silent and surrendered –
As usual – To his most sacred love!
He was just channel!
The art was not his –
But that of the Angel,
With The Most Beautiful Eyes!

PS - This is my 3rd composition in the Simoni Series.
For the other poems of the same series, you may refer -
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/search/label/SIMONI%20SERIES

______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

A New Life

It might be an interesting experiment to have a radically new way of living. It is about living in defiance of what initially natural selection had in mind during the inception of life - creating humans as a means of proliferation of genes. The deep engrained human propensities, hidden in the realm of sub-conscious awareness, have been evolutionarily hardwired to program humans to be a better vehicles of proliferation of more and better genes. That is what the life operates for all flora and fauna, as illustrated in details by hundreds of naturalists before and after Darwin.

Now, at this current era of information revolution at its peak - at a time when human brain has evolved to become aware of itself with never before clarity and accuracy, there is a possibility of living life in a brand new philosophy - the philosophy of being alive as a means to proliferate healthy memes, instead of healthy genes!

This new frame of reality, this new framework of existence is based on the idea that world is all about information, expressions, stories, ideas, dreams, thoughts, and intellectual insights. Humans are mere means to create and hold such information. In that terms, the army of creator and maintainer of thoughts, humans are joined with computer programs, journals, magazines, books, media, etc. These entities are artifacts of human ideation, and also work as stimulators for newer ideas. So the world transforms to a stage for not actors in the form of humans, rather a stage in which ideas/memes interact and evolve, using human mind and other forms of information processing centers as vehicles.

Such a scheme of things creates an interesting way of existence. A stance of living in which a human lives not for pleasure for its body, but for the evolution of its mind - to process more and more complex information. The parameter of social status and prestige becomes not the material possession and economic power, but rather information, and ideas in ones mind. The idea of self indulgence for physical pleasure goes out of context, as life is viewed as drama of ideas and thoughts - not of human beings as such.

This way of thinking has its innate advantages. The first and foremost is the alleviation the divide among humans on the basis of economic divide. The worth of a person is gauged by the possession of ideas, and innovative insights. The prime importance is given to the memes in the mind. This frees a person from the inevitability of hereditary aspect of wealth and happiness. It helps to create a more democratic and egalitarian society - atleast on the basis of material possession.

So, life becomes an aware journey where it is all about learning, exploring, creating, and thereby directing the evolution of mankind towards a more optimal existence - as a whole. In such scheme of things, the selfish reasons of one own self does not come into consideration. Although the natural selection forces a person to behave in its old model - vexed towards preserving and proliferation of self, an aware state of mind (the meta mind) stands in defines of the genetic pull, to give a direction against it, shaping with the force of memetic field.

This new way of being enables humanity to evolve in a well designed direction towards a more glorious future. A choice is applied at every point, whether to surrender to the genetic pull, or to stand out and do something different - something responsible. And moreover, life also frees itself from the baggage of negative human emotions. The psychological propensities like hatred, envy, jealousy, fear, animosity, guilt, etc get freed out. The root cause is that now the person looks every situation as being caused by data, stories, information. Not due to an evil intent of a human in flesh and blood. The harming gesture of a human is viewed as just a crystallization of a thought process - manifestation of a meme that is held in the mind of the person. The the victim looks for the opportunity to come up with a meme which defeats the harming meme. Thus there is a survival of the fittest meme that takes place - letting the more adaptable, and stronger meme to thrive over the weaker and rigid meme. Such a state of affair creates a more compassionate way of looking at things. Now, a person does not hate another person. Rather focusses on the meme from the mind of the other person. This helps to facilitate a problem solving stance, where sustained focus on the meme enables a person to act as a link between the problem and the solution.

Mental well being is always of primary importance in such scheme of things. That is facilitated through reading, intellectual inter courses, contemplations, ideation, brain storming, etc. This helps a more productive usage of the life span for an individual. Being busy with mental idea creation and knowledge gaining, is incentivized in such structure of a society.


______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

My Mind to me a kingdom is...

My Mind to me a kingdome is,
Such present joy therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind;
Though much I want which most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to creave.

No princely pop, no wealthy store,
No force to win the victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to feed a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall:
For why? My mind both serve all.

I see how plenty sufriets oft,
And hasty climbers soon do fall;
I see that those which are aloft,
Mishap doth threaten most of all,
They get with toil, They keep with fear;
Such cares my mind could never bear.

Content to live, this is my star;
I seek no more than may suffice;
I press to bear no haughty sway;
Look, what I lack, my mind supplies:
Lo, thus I triumph like a king
Content with what my mind doth bring!

Some have too much, yet still do crave;
I little have, and seek no more
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store;
They poor, I rich; They beg; I give;
They lack, I leave; they pine, I live.
- Sir Edward Dyer.
______________________________________________

PERSISTENCE - The life of Abraham Lincoln

Failed in business - 22 years of age
Ran for legislature. Defeated - 23 years of age
Again failed in business - 24 years of age
Elected to legislature - 25 years of age
Sweetheart died - 26 years of age
Had a nervous breakdown - 27 years of age
Defeated for speaker - 29 years of age
Defeated for elector - 31 years of age
Defeated for Congress - 34 years of age
Elected to Congress - 37 years of age
Defeated for Congress - 39 years of age
Defeated for Senate - 46 years of age
Defeated for Vice President - 47 years of age
Defeated for Senate - 49 years of age
Elected the President of the United States - 51 years of age.
______________________________________________

Likes & Dislikes

Born and brought up in a social context, most of us have immense opportunity to interact, collaborate, and transact with multiple other people, in the course of our life time. Most of these interpersonal transactions are based on what evolutionary psychologists term – “Reciprocal Altruism”. It is being good to others, with the un-conscious understanding that the goodness will be reciprocated when needed. Sometimes such payoffs are engrained into the fabric of an institution. For example, colleagues in a corporate environment generally are good to each other. These being good to others is something which is evolutionary hard wired in humans – as this appears most optimal in the perspective of natural selection.

Reciprocal Altruism is visible in human societies since thousands of years, from when humans started living in big groups – who are not related to each other through family ties. Most of these “likings” were un-consciously guided for the long term wellbeing of the self and her immediate kin. This included helping each other in the times of draught, natural calamity, wars, disease outbreak etc. Similar reciprocal altruism is prevalent even today, in our daily affairs.

There are instances of other form of likings that are also prevalent in human society. I term that say, “ardent affection”. Such bonds are manifested in familial bonds, bonds between very close friends, etc. The uniqueness of this form of interpersonal attraction is its sheer depth. These bonds are not only guided by mutual economic and other benefits, but also it is nourished and strengthened by deeper physiological, genetic and psychological factors.

Most of our arduous likings are guided by our psyche much deeper than our conscious self. These are more guided by our genetic makeup, up-bringing and social conditioning. These un-consciously control our behavior towards others. We do not logically “think” and decide on these likings and attractions. For explain our likings for a particular cuisine is NOT calculated by our conscious minds. But it is by our genetic pre-disposition and social conditioning, we are inclined towards a particular cuisine – by design. Same is the case with our appreciation for general design and aesthetics. For example I have observed, I like a specific type of formal shoes. Since childhood, I have observed that leather shoes with conspicuous soles were always my liking. Such a pre-disposition for a specific style might be an outcome of various cognitive, social factors and other personal value system. Same pattern is observed not only in our likes and dislikes of in-animate objects, but also other human beings. In my life experience, I have observed, I have always been attracted to particular type of personality. Such personalities keep coming again and again in the close ring of people I ardently love. I get amazed by the similarity in their likings, attitude, the nature of the familial bonds they share with their respective families, sometimes geographies they belong to, their preferences of food, their personal value systems, etc. The most interesting point is that it is not true that these personalities have always been compatible to me, on cognitive levels. Most of the times these personalities have caused more psychological disturbances in my internal psyche, than others! But still I have always considered them as those few special people I love and care the most! It looks totally illogical, and irrational – on surface.

Sometimes there is an interesting twist to the tail. Interpersonal interactions often crop up between individuals, where one party exercises “reciprocal altruism”, but the other party exercises “ardent affection”. Such an interpersonal interaction breaks down. The party A has an un-easy stand on the extra, un-wanted care demonstrated by the party B, and the party B always keeps expecting one glance of that pure authentic affection from the other. This situation has a potential failure mode in the transactions carried between the parties.

The issue gets intensified when the party B keeps going out of her way, trying to be “nice” to the party A, to win over her affection. There is an in-grained superstition involved in such a move. The superstition is that likes and dislikes are rational and logical – love and care will be returned by same authentic love and care. One has to be aware that the knobs to likes & dislikes are much deeper and are affected by many aspects of human psyche much deeper than conscious brain. No matter how good the person tries to become, she will never be able to convert the superficial “Reciprocal Altruism” to “ardent affection”. Such an understanding helps to better deal the situation.

With this state of affairs, evolutionarily humans have adapted to this predicament pretty ingenuously. Most of the relationships which are based on “ardent affection” are thus formed only with members belonging to the same family. And if such a new relationship is sought out of the family tree, the parties get into an social treaty (like marriage) to extend the familial ties. Such institutions have multiple significances. One major is the economic and utilitarian interdependence. Complemented with such worldly accountabilities, the relationship becomes stronger, by increasing the incentives involved.

Humans very tactfully maintain the “reciprocal altruism” in place, and do not mistake it with “ardent affection”. The latter is reserved for people within the family and those few very close friends. Humans intrinsically become aware of the nature of a transaction and immediately drift apart when there is a discrepancy in the stream of affection.

Strangely most of the major religions have preached that one should unconditionally shower selfless affection and love to her fellow humans. This sounds phony – at least on surface. It is like someone forcing me to say I like every cuisine in the world. Or say, I love all the models of the cars. To say that, would be a big lie.

But when dealing with humans, it certainly has atleast some grounding. One major reason is humans are not inanimate objects. They are rather a bundle of dynamic psychological propensities. It certainly makes sense to relate all fellow humans with unconditional love and care – without any expectation of a direct or indirect pay off. Following are four dimensions that I describe in details, which try to support this point of view.

The first aspect is, at any point of time in life, it is very difficult to judge whether there is an inherent payoff in a given transaction or not. Humans by evolution are short sighted, and unidirectional. We never have a big perspective of the entire life taking into consideration myriad of possibilities and factors affecting those possibilities. Hence, it would be utter naiveté to not love and care someone for no apparent vested interest. It certainly builds of psychological capital to unconditionally love others.

The second aspect is that most of the times perception of a person is nothing but the projection of her internal self. If a person is in the state of compassion, love, and care, she would end up seeing nice and lovable people around. On the other hand if the person is herself deep drowned in the poison of suspicion, hatred, and selfishness, she will end up seeing only such people around. Hence for one’s personal wellbeing, it makes a sound psychological case of well being, to be in the state of un-conditional love towards one and all.

The third aspect is that humans have an extremely malleable consciousness. Based on the feedback one receives from her surrounding, one keeps re-assessing her internal psychological framework. A consistent way of relating to someone with love and care, might in long run, transform a “Reciprocal Altruism” to “Arduous affection”. But yes, this transformation will occur only when there it goes well with the genetic compatibility and other various factors taken together.

 The fourth aspect is that it certainly increases the depth and wellbeing of a person, when she has more “arduous affection” manifested in most of her relationships. The level of Serotonin and other hormones related to wellbeing increases in her physiology. Her immune system enhances. The general happiness index is certainly enhanced.

The aspect of un-conditionality is wise to have. This is because it helps the person to prepare for a possible failure mode. It is a matter of fact that after being all good, the mutation from the “reciprocal altruism” to “ardent affection” might not happen. This happens not due to a deficiency in any of the party involved. But rather deeper aspects of the wring of brain cells, social conditioning, genetics, etc. It is more physiologically centered. The aspect of un-conditionality keeps the person having a responsible and pragmatic perspective.

Hence going deep into the religious prescription of practicing unconditional love for all, one might come to terms with the sound psychological case supporting the stance.

It is very interesting how the likes and dislikes are governed in the psyche of humans, and a society.

[To refer to the  first part of this article please refer to - http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2011/02/illusion-of-understanding.html although I have tried my best to keep this article not dependent on any information presented in the first part.]
______________________________________________ 

Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar

The Enchantment

Michel Simoni – (May his tribe increase)
Walked down the highway
In the city of Florence,
Past midnight.

The night was dark,
Cold and Foggy.
Alone waked the sage sculptor!
 With silver beard,
And gold heart!

Sky was back,
Dull and dark.
With no moon no star.

Michel was alone,
Trod he the dark ways,
Enchanted to his core!

Enchanted was he with the Fire!
The standing torches – The glaring Fire!
Stood they burning with all ardor,
On both sides of the highway,
Determined to show the way ahead,
To Michel Simoni!

The standing torches – The glaring Fire!
They knew not Michel Simoni.
Knew not they other thousands of travelers,
On the way every night through ages!

Nothing they expected,
Nothing they wanted.
Only they knew  -
To fight darkness away,
To bring into sight -
The destination for others.

Kept they burning,
All through the night,
Without a moan, or a cry!
They knew there was a thing
More Important than their pleasure,
It was the wellbeing of others!

The standing torches – The glaring Fire!
The essence of their existence,
The reason of their life,
Was to give –
Warmth, Light and Direction!

Fighting the darkness, ignorance,
And pain of the world,
With the enlightening
And guiding radiance!
The sole purpose was to
Burning till the last breath,
Reducing the self to ashes,
Just with one purpose,
One meaning, and one ambition –
To light the path of the weary travelers!

Enchanted was Michel!
Awestruck at the grace and pride!
Of the torch burning high!
Kissing the heavens as a knight!

Stopped he by the post,
Looked up askance towards the torch,
Asked Michel –
“What you get? Why you burn? Are you not tired?”

All the torches laughed at one go!
Sarcastic laughter thundered the sky and the earth!
Groaned the torch to Michel –
“If I don’t burn, I cease to be who I am.
  If I don’t burn, I cease to be relevant.
  I am not a form,
  I am not a dead sculptor of yours!
  I am a process, a happening, a celebration!
  I am a continuous urge, an un-tiring hope,
  I am a cosmic dance,
  Busy in creation – Creating Beauty of Light and Awareness!
  I might be in pain, burning agelessly,
  But I am proud! I am in grace!
  For I am RELEVANT!
  I don’t need the traveler’s gratitude!
  Nor I need a sight of understanding and care!
  What does a process need?
  How can a dance ask?”

 The standing torches – The glaring Fire!
 All pronounced in unison -  
“Go ahead Michel Simoni!
 What will you know what is being a FLAME!
 You are just a mortal – caged in your earthly cravings!”

[This is my second composition of the Simoni series. The first one is "The Sculptor's Sin"
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2011/04/sculptors-sin.html]
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar