"Zahir - visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else. This can be considered either a state of holiness or of madness. "
The Zahir by Paulo Coelho is an engaging book. He pulls you into his world right from the onset by describing the sudden disappearance of his wife. It is unclear whether she has run away or was kidnapped or simply walked out on him because their marriage was falling apart. The story revolves around his obsession (his Zahir) of finding her and rediscovering the love that once was his marriage, his life. While the storyline is simple, and perhaps all too familiar, the messages he brings across are quite thought-provoking.
When I started reading The Zahir, I did it because this book meant something special to my girlfriend. And I was keen on finding out what that was. Now I know that the ideas of freedom and love that the book brings forth touched her deeply, and I am glad, because they touched me too.
But there is something beyond that, something which is more fundamental and stirring about the Zahir. And that is our idea about ourselves, and about what we want from life. Allow me to quote from the book:
"I went to a train station today and learned that the distance between railway tracks is always 143.5 centimetres or 4 feet 8 and a half inches. Why this absurd measurement? I asked my girlfriend to find out and this is what she discovered. When they built the first train carriages, they used the same tools as they had for building horse-drawn carriages. And why the distance between the wheels on carriages? Because that was the width of old roads along which the carriages had to travel. And who decided the roads should be that width? Well suddenly we are plunged back into the distant past. It was the Romans, the first great road-builders, who decided to make their roads that width. And why? Because their war chariots were pulled by two horses, and when places side by side, the horses they used at the time took up 143.5 centimetres.
So the distance between the tracks I saw today, used by our state-of-the-art high-speed trains, was determined by the Romans."
We all undergo 16 to 18 years of education, get into fine jobs, get married, have children and spend the next 20 years of our lives ensuring that our children live comfortable lives, then work for our retirement, and if our partner is still around (be it physically or emotionally) spend the last years of our lives in relative bliss (hopefully), always ensuring that the railway tracks remain 143.5 centimetres apart, because thats how the Romans lived their lives centuries ago.
We each have our 'purpose', but thats been pre-defined as well. You have a few choices:
1. Make lots of money/earn fame and adulation
2. Be a good husband/wife or family man/woman
3. Build an organization
4. Be charitable
5. Travel
6. Enter the realms of spirituality
Form any combination of 2 or 3 of these choices and you have your purpose in life defined. Any of them may become your Zahir, your obsession, your sole ambition and desire.
Do each of us find a purpose in our life because thats how we want to live our life or do we try and find some purpose because thats we have been told to do? Because the Romans and Aryans and Chinese all those thousands of years ago decided that for society to survive we each need to carry out certain roles, and we each need to find our purpose?
Animals in the wild seem to have no greater purpose in life than to survive, to mate, to reproduce and to pass on when their time comes. Is it simply our ego as human beings that pushes us to believe that we need a higher purpose or is that how nature deemed it to be?
I may be coming across as someone who would like mankind to go back to the wild, to the days of tribes and nomads, where we are free to chart our own paths. That however is not my point.
My point is this - without sounding holier than thou - its important that each of us do find our purpose in life, find that special someone, and maintain our relationships, but not because society dictates that we do so. We need'nt struggle with our souls in order to find our purpose. We need'nt struggle to keep our relationships alive simply because society and civilization have defined them for us. Let us not allow finding a purpose or maintaining and forming relationships become our Zahir as much as the writer in 'The Zahir' allowed his failed marriage to become his.
Instead if we each do what we want, what we desire, follow our gut, and most importantly give others around us the freedom and the space to follow theirs, we may find that railway tracks need not always remain 143.5 centimetres apart.....with any luck, your track and mine may converge.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Beyond Here and Now..
Well here I am again - and on the same day too!
I had time to read a fair bit today - am reading a book called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. I am sure a fair number of you would have heard of it and many would have probably read it too. Its a highly engaging book so far. The book is generously sprinkled with some very catchy philosophical lines that provide fodder for thought.
Which got me thinking - philosophy, spirituality, discussions on ethics and morality - what prompts us to engage in them? That then shall be the topic of this blog.
The great thinkers of the past - men like Aristotle and Plato, or Confuscious or Gautama Buddha - have all turned towards spirituality and philosophy at a time when their civilizations were at the zenith. Materially there was no want for anything more - but people craved something more, something beyond, something metaphysical and ethereal.
We seem to be at a similar point in modern history today. Technologically we are fast approaching a point where it shall be difficult to conceive anything fantastically different from what we already have or know about. Materially we have all the comforts that we could possibly need. Most of our work is either completely or partially done by machines. We spend less time doing mundane activities that kept our forefathers (and mothers) occupied for most part of their day. Which only means we have more time for other activities - while some use the time to chase pleasures of all sorts, others use it for the 'softer' side of their development - be it the emotional or the spiritual quotient.
Our generation in particular - and here I do generalize - seems to have been brought up with most of our needs provided for. Most of our desires have been met, one way or the other. While our fathers and their fathers had their financial future and the well-being of their families to worry about, we seem to have more time and freedom to sit by the seaside and discuss the state of our civilization and our souls.
The bottomline is this - while our forefathers have all been men of action - essentially because of a pressing need to be as such - we are more driven by the quest for knowledge and higher thinking. We spend more of our time musing over matters that really do not have a direct impact on our everyday lives. While we still do study and work, we do so without any real worry of the future that lies ahead. Our fathers have ensured that we shall lead a life that is considerably easier and more comfortable than theirs has been. Our leaders assure us that global problems are being addressed, and that our security is their first priority. As Tyler Durden says in Fight Club (one of the must-see movies - but more on those in another blog) - "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives."
Whether this is a good thing or bad is a matter of perspective. One might argue that we shall only end up being fat and lazy with no real drive or purpose. But seen a different way - we may be approaching a point in history where we finally have a deep enough understanding of science and spirituality to be able to converge the 2 paths. We may find that the universal equation Einstein spent his life searching for may be more spiritual than scientific - or a combination of the two fields of study. Of course - I'm only musing.
In conclusion all I can say is that we are in a day and age where we shall find more and more people driven by a search for something beyond the physical and the present. What we make of it and whether we pursue it ourselves is a very individual choice. As always, it boils down to belief and faith. What do you believe in?
Cheers
Afterthought: The very fact that I had time to write this, and the fact that you have the time to read it is proof enough that we all do not seem to have too many pressing concerns in our lives today. :D What can I say - enjoy it while you can!
I had time to read a fair bit today - am reading a book called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. I am sure a fair number of you would have heard of it and many would have probably read it too. Its a highly engaging book so far. The book is generously sprinkled with some very catchy philosophical lines that provide fodder for thought.
Which got me thinking - philosophy, spirituality, discussions on ethics and morality - what prompts us to engage in them? That then shall be the topic of this blog.
The great thinkers of the past - men like Aristotle and Plato, or Confuscious or Gautama Buddha - have all turned towards spirituality and philosophy at a time when their civilizations were at the zenith. Materially there was no want for anything more - but people craved something more, something beyond, something metaphysical and ethereal.
We seem to be at a similar point in modern history today. Technologically we are fast approaching a point where it shall be difficult to conceive anything fantastically different from what we already have or know about. Materially we have all the comforts that we could possibly need. Most of our work is either completely or partially done by machines. We spend less time doing mundane activities that kept our forefathers (and mothers) occupied for most part of their day. Which only means we have more time for other activities - while some use the time to chase pleasures of all sorts, others use it for the 'softer' side of their development - be it the emotional or the spiritual quotient.
Our generation in particular - and here I do generalize - seems to have been brought up with most of our needs provided for. Most of our desires have been met, one way or the other. While our fathers and their fathers had their financial future and the well-being of their families to worry about, we seem to have more time and freedom to sit by the seaside and discuss the state of our civilization and our souls.
The bottomline is this - while our forefathers have all been men of action - essentially because of a pressing need to be as such - we are more driven by the quest for knowledge and higher thinking. We spend more of our time musing over matters that really do not have a direct impact on our everyday lives. While we still do study and work, we do so without any real worry of the future that lies ahead. Our fathers have ensured that we shall lead a life that is considerably easier and more comfortable than theirs has been. Our leaders assure us that global problems are being addressed, and that our security is their first priority. As Tyler Durden says in Fight Club (one of the must-see movies - but more on those in another blog) - "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives."
Whether this is a good thing or bad is a matter of perspective. One might argue that we shall only end up being fat and lazy with no real drive or purpose. But seen a different way - we may be approaching a point in history where we finally have a deep enough understanding of science and spirituality to be able to converge the 2 paths. We may find that the universal equation Einstein spent his life searching for may be more spiritual than scientific - or a combination of the two fields of study. Of course - I'm only musing.
In conclusion all I can say is that we are in a day and age where we shall find more and more people driven by a search for something beyond the physical and the present. What we make of it and whether we pursue it ourselves is a very individual choice. As always, it boils down to belief and faith. What do you believe in?
Cheers
Afterthought: The very fact that I had time to write this, and the fact that you have the time to read it is proof enough that we all do not seem to have too many pressing concerns in our lives today. :D What can I say - enjoy it while you can!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The Begining
Well - its finally happened. For many months now I have wondered about blogging - wondered about why it is so popular, and then been amazed at the apparent power of blogging - how it has sucked so many people in and has become as far-reaching a form of media as any other - and I wondered some more...
But like so many other things in my life, I thought about it, wondered about it, talked about it with peers..and did absolutely nothing.
A friend of mine here is a devout blogger. Not only does he post blogs regularly but is also an avid reader of many blogs. What really piqued my interest was the useful bits of information and the manifold points of view that he found on various blogs he frequented. He makes it a point to forward these articles to me and thats pretty much all the blog-reading I have done.
Quite frankly I am yet to become an avid follower of blogs. But I guess, like most other things in life, your interest only grows once you are involved in something. And that leads us to this.
So here goes - my first blog post.
I have always thought of blogging as being merely an extension to maintaining a diary. The only difference I suppose is that occasionally a blog may reply to your thoughts and views - through comments from you - the reader.
But both require two things - a genuine interest and the discipline that goes with it. Which again is so true of most things in life.
If you have'nt noticed already I do have a penchant for generalizations. But more on these in the blogs to come.
For now, let me just bask in the glory of having finally started something that I have been 'wondering' and 'thinking' about for so long. And let me thank you - the reader (are u still there?) - for taking time out to read this.
Cheers
But like so many other things in my life, I thought about it, wondered about it, talked about it with peers..and did absolutely nothing.
A friend of mine here is a devout blogger. Not only does he post blogs regularly but is also an avid reader of many blogs. What really piqued my interest was the useful bits of information and the manifold points of view that he found on various blogs he frequented. He makes it a point to forward these articles to me and thats pretty much all the blog-reading I have done.
Quite frankly I am yet to become an avid follower of blogs. But I guess, like most other things in life, your interest only grows once you are involved in something. And that leads us to this.
So here goes - my first blog post.
I have always thought of blogging as being merely an extension to maintaining a diary. The only difference I suppose is that occasionally a blog may reply to your thoughts and views - through comments from you - the reader.
But both require two things - a genuine interest and the discipline that goes with it. Which again is so true of most things in life.
If you have'nt noticed already I do have a penchant for generalizations. But more on these in the blogs to come.
For now, let me just bask in the glory of having finally started something that I have been 'wondering' and 'thinking' about for so long. And let me thank you - the reader (are u still there?) - for taking time out to read this.
Cheers
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