Moktaavya, my son. He
has in his possession the small edition of almost everything that an adult
person may need to live in a house, i.e.; his own vehicles, chair, reading
table and chair, separate chambers in the wardrobe for his clothes, a big
wooden box to keep his toys, and things that are not worth mentioning. He doesn't have a separate room yet, as he’s just crossed five years. He will have a room
for himself soon. Now, I know you must
be wondering why on earth I am listing what my son has! This is because, like
all other children, he considers that whatever there is in our home belongs to
him. He will scream and fight when he is told that not all in the house are
his.
So what? Yeah, nothing. Just that it reminds me of the fact
that ignorance is bliss! We fondly remember our childhood…what was so good
about childhood? It was the ignorance of
the harsh realities of life. As we grow
up, the worldly knowledge let us understand mainly about what is not mine, then
what is mine. We crave to get things,
people, position, property which/whom we can consider as ours… ‘mine’. ‘My’, ‘mine’…then
‘our’, ‘ours’…
I->My family->My
personal/professional circle->My caste->My community->My
religion->My land->My planet
The selfishness associated with ‘I’ keeps losing its intensity
as we broaden the perimeter and include more people and concerns. We fight and
struggle to keep the individuality of the set of perimeters. The intensity of
struggle in a particular perimeter is equivalent to the percentage of ‘I' in
it.
But I wonder, why do we call it knowledge? Is there any
major difference between the child and the grown up? Don’t we realize that
every damn ‘I’ on earth, no matter how much it’s surrounded by near and dear
ones, is actually walking with many till the time it’s fulfilling some set
criteria or terms and conditions of the given system? Yes we do.
At the back of our minds, we know and life makes sure that
we know. But still we are afraid of being left alone with the ‘I’. So, we spend
our lives, trying to fulfil the terms and conditions that will secure our
lives with more of ‘My’ and to some extent ‘our’.
To secure that ‘My’ and ‘our’, we have created countries,
religion, caste, and so on, whereas Mother Nature, or God…whatever you name it,
had created only male and female in every living being. Didn't we invite pain
and suffering by dividing whatever we had? Isn't that ignorance? Then how can
we say that ignorance is bliss?
Now, a thought to ponder on:
Why are we afraid of walking alone? Don’t we love this ‘I’ the most?
Paro babe's thoughts are always very interesting to read. She has some unique feelings generated in her inner-self. The selfishness associated with ‘I’ is not new but Paro has annotated it in her way. I like it baby.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Ram Sankar da. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Paro, this is another absorbing piece of writing from your end....the last line stimulates my thoughts..."we love this `I` and still we are afraid of walking alone"...
ReplyDeleteMy Thoughts
We love this `I` because it is our identity.No one live without his or her personal identity. If somebody asks you "how are you?"..your reply will be like "I am fine" or "I am good"....you just can`t reply without using the "I"....we use "I" throughout the day and thus it has become an integral part of ourselves..."I" has become the very essence of our existence and so we are very attached to it.....
Our attachment with the "I" has made us selfish and self-centred..."The selfishness associated with ‘I’' is the result of our inner desire to strengthen and empower our personal identity (I).....to enable our identity to rise above anyone else`s...
we are "afraid of walking alone"....well,fear is an essential part of human predicament...we are afraid of the dark, of ghosts, of getting robbed or killed...while teaching "Heat of Darkness", one of my teachers talked about "human predicament"....it was one of the themes of the novel....and while we are walking "alone", we are less likely to get help if something happens to us...so the fear deepens...
While I came back to write my views as I have promised earlier, after reading through the post made above I have not much to say.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't made this out of ignorance, although we try to sell in terms of bliss. The sole purpose is about having "my/our" identity based on the way "I/we" lead the life. As we aren't equal, on an average what we get depends very much on who we are. Even a beggar needs an identity to have his alms! And there is nothing wrong in asking for what one deserves.
Now walking alone isn't a very good practice just to be alone without a matured intention. Some people does it but it's not just showoff or a luxurious desire to become unique, it's more intention driven act which neither the system nor that person has any control. Think of any known international figure, try to realize the situation if he/she isn't allowed for what he/she is famous about & also realize whether society could set any upper bound for his/her lifelong achievements. So I hope your son, as he grows will find his abilities to create an identity without doing injustice to others & future will select whether to walk alone or be in a league.