Dwandh – The Conflict

Some place amidst lush green trees, by the side of a calm lake where a gentle breeze blew and silence was broken only by occasional tweets of little birds, was sitting a man… still like a statue as if trying to absorb as much serenity as he could. He took an advice and slowed down to smell the roses which brought him to this paradise. He wanted to let the nature sink in… fill every pore of his body bathe his soul with the tranquility. Unfortunately, the situation in his beautiful mind couldn’t be more contrast than the surroundings he was sitting in. He was tormented, as if desperately searching for ever eluding answers; crying out silently to the Universe in a hope of getting some response.

Let us take a peek into his world –

“What is going on?? Why is it happening to me? Did I take the right path? What am I supposed to do?? Of course everything is going fine… There is nothing to complain… I have a great job, great family and great friends; what else one could ask for…

Ah and yet you have doubts… you are impatient… you are looking for answers to some inexpressible questions… you are doubtful about the future and questioning your past decisions.

Yes but that is not it; most important question of all is; am I on the right path?? What was I supposed to do with this life?? What is my purpose?? Am I heading towards right direction?? Who will tell me that and don’t say ‘GOD’. I don’t understand that concept completely or more accurately I don’t want HIM to intervene now, if He at all exists… I must figure this out on my own… I would rather fight and get an answer rather than surrender to whims of uncertainty and fate.

Ha ha ha… isn’t this amusing… here sits a man talking to himself… questioning and answering his own doubts about the purpose and refuting any higher help. Adamant, arrogant and ignorant: all at once. How can you be sure that this voice of ‘Self’ you are talking to is not the ‘voice of GOD’? The guiding force, the mentor thou seek so desperately.

Ok let us make one thing very clear… I know who exactly you are. You are the smart mouth who doesn’t know when to shut up, who is as incomplete and ignorant as I am. You are the one who adds to the chaos and confusion by proposing an alternative path while I am trying to make a decision. You are nothing but my alter ego whose knowledge and understanding is as limited as my own. A man plays innumerable roles in his life and his mind is so beautifully designed that it adapts to new roles and situations almost instantaneously. So you are one such entity or facet of human personality who develops with an individual as his experiences grow; so your knowledge could not be more than that of an individual but yes there is one quality which gives you an upper hand. You are more like an observer or analyst who can look at the current situations and past experiences objectively. Evaluate them and draw unbiased conclusions while I am free to curse the heavens and fate when I fail at something… Your clarity of thought and ability to draw unbiased conclusions makes you the ‘Wise’ one while I stay free to willow in pain and angst when some of my dearest dream shatter, like an innocent child who hates his mother for not giving him the candy. So cut the crap of playing ‘voice of GOD’ and stay focused.

 Ok; as long as I am the wiser one I will play along… :-) . So what is troubling you today?? You are in such a beautiful surrounding instead of enjoying that why are you tormenting yourself with silly questions?

Well it is not all my fault… These kind of serene surroundings just make you realize how chaotic ones daily life is. And the cycle of thought process kicks in leading to more philosophical questions like “Why is there so much of chaos? What is my role in this grand plan? What is my life’s purpose?”… Care to answer a couple of them?

Hmm… answer to this question is much simpler than one could imagine but that is not what everyone wants to listen. We humans are obsessed with ‘complexity’ but at times complex solutions are no solutions at all rather they complicate the original problem. At this point one would expect answers like “creation, leading, contributing to society etc.” but no, this is not the real purpose. The real purpose is much more fundamental than this.

“The real purpose of one’s life is – attaining Singularity”

Bringing the ‘dvandh’ – the conflict to an end by virtue of unity is true purpose of one’s life. As you mentioned earlier human mind adapts and evokes multiple personalities in a response to a situation; more often than not these facets are in conflict with one another. All these facets are parts of a whole but interfere with each other’s role and lead to never ending chaos. Bhagwat Geeta states “The mind acts like an enemy for those who do not control it” on similar lines Robin Sharma quoted “mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master”. The day when all these facets merge into one seamless ‘Whole’ Singularity will be attained and this ceaseless ‘dwandh’ will also come to an end.

 … … “

– With this there was a visible change in his demeanor, his face radiated with a peaceful smile and eyes sparkled with determination. It seemed he found the answer he sought. For him one of the many 'dwandhs' ended and now he seemed determined to end them all…

I – The Selfish…

I cannot express the satisfaction and pleasure I feel to pronounce the word ‘I’. How can anyone be anything but “Selfish”?? I feel PROUD to say “I AM SELFISH!”. Contrary to normal belief about "Being Selfish" it does not seem to be such a bad idea after all; on other hand it could be much more rewarding than the conventional idea of "Sacrifice".

I have toyed with ideas and challenged the traditional believes since childhood. I refuse to accept these believe the way they are preached until I see a reason to it. It is said everything has its reason and everything has its time. Over the time I have come to believe it because I have experienced it and lived through it. I always had a problem with the categorization of Good and Evil, of Boon and Bane, of VIRTUE and VICE and I am still trying to piece it up for myself. It might be in a way reinventing the wheel but who knows from these attempts one may discover that the best design for a wheel is NOT circle but a sphere.

This struggle was silent for a long time till I read a comic-strip created by my friend Arun Shreekumar with the title “Selfish Love”.

I couldn’t agree to it more; from a perspective LOVE can even be a synonym to BEING SELFISH. As usual there were comments and disagreement to use the word ‘Love’ alongside ‘Selfish’ and my friend is guilty to this crime according to a few. This conflict just added fuel to my fire of “What makes something a virtue or a vice?” “Why being SELFISH is SATANIC?” and I had to reason it to myself. Call it a chance or right time I happen to pick “Anthem” by Ayn Rand to read and it silenced the dispute of SELFISHNESS being a VICE or a VIRTUE.

‘Selfish’ is an adjective mostly used to describe “a person whose actions are driven by love for oneself” while ‘Love’ is a tender feeling that one person feels for the other, which can drive people to their limits and beyond. People are sure to question that how can a feeling as pure as love even remotely be SELFISH? But on a closer look they may not be so different after all... 

Of every kind of love known to man there is no love greater than that of a mother for her child. That love is compared to what GOD feels for HIS children and I have no qualms in saying that this motherly love is nothing but purely SELFISH. A mother loves her children without any conditions; without any restrictions; without any bounds; not because the child asks for it or needs it but because SHE wants to. She does it for her own joy as it gives her the satisfaction and peace that no other thing in this world can ever give her. She does it even without being aware of it. When a person loves other truly and deeply it does not matter whether the other person loves back; for the joy one gets in loving other is already his; nothing not even the rejection or hatred or demise of the other can take it away. Who knows this idea may have given birth to the phrase “being madly in love…” for this emotion is beyond Reason.

Another word considered as the biggest hurdle in one’s spiritual growth is ‘I’. The words ‘I’ and ‘EGO’ are disowned and scorned upon by many spiritual/truth seekers; also considered to be the root cause of all evil and born out of man’s ignorance. People try so hard for years to curb this ‘I’ by living lives for others to attain the ultimate peace and satisfaction; but maybe the right path is not in abandoning the path of selfishness, the path of ‘I’ but walking through it towards the Realization of Wholesomeness of ‘I’. Had the word ‘I’ (a sign of singularity and individualism) been so unholy, the GOD would have never been proclaimed to be ONE. Had the ‘I’ been so unholy Advaita Philosophy would never go by “Aham Brahmasmi” (I am GOD); [wouldn’t it be the most EGOIST statement ever proclaiming self to be a GOD]. The only reasoning I can give for this is “Do things which brings YOU happiness. Do things towards which YOU are drawn. DO things ONLY for YOUR happiness. DO things which YOU believe to be right or have faith in. ONLY thing to drive you to do things should be YOUR OWN LOVE for them or happiness directly or indirectly derived from doing it and not some fear. A service done to the underprivileged for the sake of one’s own happiness and satisfaction is a true service else it might even qualify to be just another bribe to get into “Good Books” of ALMIGHTY. The only and biggest disservice one can do is to NOT follow one’s own heart.

Of course merely stating my belief does not prove anything so let me put down a line of thought for you. Let us take an example of any reolutionary person maybe Mother Teresa, Lord Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Bhagat Singh, Subhaschandra Bose etc.; take your pick. Most of them left their worldly lives, their homes and the blood relations behind. They did not leave because someone told them to but because the thirst, the urge to seek the truth, to achieve the peace and calm, to realize their dream was stronger than anything else in their lives. They did it as it was the only thing that they wanted in their lives. They did it for no one else but for themselves. And in their personal quest for satisfaction for realizing their only dream; they transformed the world. Had they stayed back with their families living the lives the way their loved ones wanted them to; was it ever possible that Mother Teresa would ever be called “Mother” by the whole world, was it ever possible for Prince Siddartha to become Lord Buddha? Would Narendra Nath be able to grow to be Swami Vivekananda; who inspired and guided millions and whose works still continue to inspire the youth even after a century of his demise.

Some may argue that we are simple people living simple lives and not great like the ones quoted above. The only difference between the exemplary people and normal people is that those people devoted their lives to do things in which they have conviction while most others give up on their own convictions because others don’t believe in them; thats ironic... If everyone has conviction as these exemplary people have, this world would be a transformed place. Maybe the only way to achieve it is by being ‘Selfish’ towards one’s own convictions and dreams.

Finally, the vice and virtue is not in the quality or emotion itself but the way it affects other lives. By preserving the essence of ‘I’ and being ‘Selfish’ towards one’s own dreams while giving space for others growth and nurture seems to be a key to bring harmony at every sphere. Be ‘selfish’ and indulge your own sense of being of ‘I’ as if everything in this universe is yours while letting others enjoy it too. Just enjoy the feel of being and be “I – The Selfish”…

Philosophy of Philosophies

The Thinker or a Philosopher in Action...

Definitely not a cherished topic for many; even utterance of the word ‘Philosophy’ can disperse the otherwise gleefully debating crowd. The trigger to write about this topic was like always a harmless meaningless chat. Some of my modest friends shy away from any debating or thought provoking topics by saying “these high thoughts are simply out of my league” or worse “my pea size brain in incapable of comprehending these thoughts” and every time I am like “what is the matter with you guys!!??” (and that's putting it mildly/nicely). The other day through one such chat I stated "Philosophy is not about explaining things but more about understanding and a way of living..." and instantly came a reply “Kindly explain it in simpler words…. With some examples…”; at least this person showed some willingness to explore the mystical realm so here I am trying to explain the Philosophy of Philosophies.

If we try to find the meaning of this word in dictionary we would get many results like “a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means” or “an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs” or “love of wisdom”. These results instead of simplifying the problem seem to complicate the situation. So let us take another approach to understand the meaning of 'Philosophy’ by having a look at a few philosophies and the philosophers.

There are innumerable philosophers and philosophies so let us talk about Socrates, Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi considering my limited knowledge and time.

Socrates^[1,2] was a Greek philosopher a giant amongst the philosophers. Coming from the city of Athens and a real humble background wherein his father was a sculptor and his mother was a midwife. I am not aware how he came to trod upon the path of philosophers but somehow he did and his love for philosophy was unmatched. He never wrote anything, most of his work known to generations is due to his disciple Plato who documented all his teachings/philosophies. Anyway coming back to his teachings; his philosophy was that of quest for knowledge. He questioned the very reason of the ‘existence of humans’, the purpose of life not only in the larger scale but also on small terms as what is purpose of his life? What are real causes for happiness?  What makes people good? His quest was to find answers to these fundamental questions of life. He lived his life by trying to answer these questions. He was of the opinion that we already know the answer to every question just that we have forgotten them at the time of birth. His way of teaching was not preaching but rather engaging in discussions. His most of the discussions or dialogs are on the ethics and life. And the way of his life became his philosophy.

Lord Buddha^[3,4] is venerated by millions and is the originator of the religion ‘Buddhism’. Lord Buddha never called himself a GOD but he rose to that level because of his quest for the knowledge to relieve people from their sufferings. His story goes by as follows:

He was born as a prince and was known as ‘Prince Siddhartha’; at the time of his birth a sage prophesy that this child would become a Great King or a Great Spiritual Leader by finding answer to misery and sufferings. As any caring father would do, the king made strict rules so that the prince is never exposed to the reality of life, the Prince was shielded from all the truths of life about any pain or misery. Anyone growing old or having disease was not allowed in the palace; if the Prince ever left the palace to walk in the city all the necessary preparations were done beforehand. All went fine till the prince was 29yrs old. Once on an impromptu ride to the city the Prince saw a procession carrying a dead body. Since the prince had never heard of ‘Death’ he was curious and asked his charioteer where are these people taking the man when he is asleep? The charioteer told the Prince that the man is not asleep but dead and made him aware of the reality. The Prince was shocked and perturbed with this revelation. He couldn’t understand the reason behind all the misery and sorrow and as predicted years ago the prince left the palace in search of the Truth; in search of an answer which will liberate people from their misery. When he achieved enlightenment he came to be known as Lord Buddha. If anyone sought answers for the misery in their life, Lord Buddha explained them and told them a way of life which could relieve them of the burden of sorrow and pain. As lord Buddha’s followers grew, as people started to accept his way of living, his teachings and his philosophy took the form of religion and came to be known as “Buddhism”.

M. K. Gandhi^[5] fondly known as Mahatma Gandhi; used the philosophy of Non-Violence or Ahimsa for fighting against British Rule in the freedom struggle. Though people have different opinions about this philosophy but nonetheless it was used extensively in the freedom struggle of India. Gandhiji lived his life by these principles and believed that there is nothing which cannot be achieved by non-violence. His way of living, way of thinking was adopted by millions and was used to fight for their rights. Though it was not a philosophy developed by Gandhiji rather he lived by this philosophy and successfully promoted this philosophy. He promoted this philosophy so well that it came to be known as “Gandhi’s philosophy of Ahimsa” though it is an integral part of many religions like Hindu, Buddhism, Jainism etc. Not only people of India were influenced by this philosophy but it even created waves in the Western countries. Many leaders of those times adopted this philosophy for their struggle; the best example to quote would be Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now from these few examples if we try to find out the common things then that would be; some people were troubled by certain questions and it bugged them so much that they dedicated their life in search for those answers; (in a way these ‘men of thought’ does not differ much from the ‘men of science’ just the domains are different). When these men got their answers it had already changed their way of life. These philosophies are nothing but the explanations or details of how these men (now tagged or recognized as “Philosophers”); lived their life and by what principles. These men had some problem to which they found a solution and followed it throughout their life. People asked them to explain and when they did, it became a philosophy. Whatever we read as a 'Philosophy’ is just more distilled and refined content of pure knowledge that philosophers acquired through their quest. So any philosophy is more about understanding the relation of cause and effect and finding a way best suited to live with it. So it can be safely concluded that "Philosophy is not about explaining things but more about understanding and a way of living..."After all said and done I have my own philosophy; what is yours?? J J

References for more interested readers:

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/17/socrates-philosopher-man-for-our-times
2. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html
3. http://www.bhutanmajestictravel.com/buddhism/lord-buddha
4. http://www.iep.utm.edu/buddha/
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa

void main (void)… Not really…

I read a status update on Facebook by my friend stating “void main ( )” and it triggered a train of thoughts. For people who thankfully are not Software Engineers; “void main (void)” is simple piece of code which marks the beginning of a program in C language but its correctness is disputed; from standards to standards this might be true or false. Frankly, I am not writing about the technicality of this code line but the philosophy it reminds me of. This code line brought together my two planes of thought, scientific and philosophical; seemingly disjoint but not really.

Amongst many other categories in which the entire world population is classified; there is one worth mentioning here. The classification goes as under:

a.       “Men of Science” who believe only in the scientific facts and for whom GOD is a mere figment of imagination

b.      “Men of Religion” for whom science in itself is UNHOLY and should be abolished

c.       “Men of Reason” for whom GOD could be a science which is yet to be properly understood

d.      And “Men of Whatever”… the people who can’t care less…

If we believe in the above classification then I am one of the “Men of Reason” so its obvious for me to relate things from science to philosophy. And this notation “void main (void)” seemed so strikingly analogous to the principle of life that I could not resist penning down my thoughts.

Before I trod into the philosophy let us have a little background and a walkthrough of this piece of code. According to latest standards of C coding “void main (void)” is incorrect way of declaration and would generate a warning or error on compilation. What this line of code actually means is “main” is a function which does not accept any input “(void)” and does not return any value (indicated by “void”). It is quite possible that there are no input arguments to the “main” function but it always does something and should return a value to mark or indicate that this function was executed. So according to new standards the declaration for the function most generally used or by default is “int main (void)”; indicating that the function returns a numeric value.

Now let us take a break from this coding and move to literature. I recently read a book “The Five People you meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom. This is an amazingly simple and entertaining book (there is also a movie based on this novel). The book is about a man who dies and goes to HEAVEN. He has to meet 5 people who were affected or who affected his life so that they can teach him something that he missed to learn through this tenure on EARTH before he enjoys his stay in HEAVEN.

The Five Life Lessons to be learnt were:

a.       Everything that happens has a purpose. Every life is connected even the strangers are Family which we haven’t come to know yet.

b.      Sacrifice. It’s the noblest deed we as humans could do. It should be cherished and honored instead of carrying a sense of loss and holding grudge because of that.

c.       Forgiveness; just Let it go. Hatred is a curved blade. The harm we do to others by hating we do that to ourselves too. Hate is built over the years from the things we don’t say; with the things we bury. In the end you need to just let it go.

d.      Love never dies. Love lost is not really lost it just changes from one form to other. Life has to end love doesn’t.

e.      We are where we are supposed to be. Each life affects the other and other the next. The world is full of stories but the stories are all one.

 These five lessons do ring a bell. But how do these relate to the programming function protocol “void main (void)”; and what is the common principle between Philosophy of life and this code line?

Suppose each and every life or person is the “main” character and his entire life is the function/program that executes till the person is alive. As the life comes to an end, it has affected some or the other life and has “returned” something knowingly or unknowingly. Just as there cannot be a warning/error free program with a declaration of void main (void); similarly there can not be a single life that does not affect someone or the other. Even the life which ends even before coming to this world affects a lot. There are loads of people who are “Nobody” but have made a whole load of difference to “Somebody”. Had there been no “Nobodies” in the life of the great men like Alexander the Great, Lord Buddha, Sir Isaac Newton, Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Genius Einstein; they might not have been this great and this world would not have been as we see it today.

So all in all, “void main (void)”… not really… J