Someone asked me to write through an unidentified comment on this blog. Though I don’t know who asked me, but the plain language prompted me to open my blog and put down something.
Almost for 10 minutes, I was just wondering what to write about. When I thought about topics, I got too many of them. When I tried to structure my thoughts around anyone, I was at a loss of words. It’s like 10 people attempting to pass through the door from where only one can exit at a time. The end result is that all 10 are just stuck.
So, I thought I would write today whatever comes to me. I have tried this kind of thing in the past. The end result usually appears to be cacophonous but there tends to be an underlying harmony, a theme running as an undercurrent which even I wouldn’t be aware of. So, let’s start…
I met two old friends yesterday. One of the things we talked about was the kind of difference that has come in the work environment/habits over couple of years. When we started working, work was just one of the many things you do in your life. However, now it has become the main thing around which the rest of your life revolves. This is a BIG change. And obviously, one change that has come over in us is that we have started talking about the glorious past.
Talking about the glorious past is a very strange phenomenon. I don’t know what all it implies but it certainly means that you do not find your present interesting/pleasing. It means that you can’t identify with your life as it is today.
We have a tendency to see the world through our eyes. It just comes naturally to us. Probably because it is just too easy to see the world this way. Seeing it in any other way will mean a lot of effort and may be a lot of discomfort too. And there is not much motivation too. There is no motivation for me to see the world through the eyes of that auto-rickshaw guy who is standing by the roadside, waiting for passengers, and has nothing to do with my day to day life. I just pass by him while driving my car to the office. What motivation do I have to see the world through his eyes? And even if I look at my friends, what motivation will I find to see the world through their eyes? Especially when there can be conflicts in what my eyes see and what his eyes. And there may not always be a conflict. His eyes may be seeing a Formula One race which does not interest me.
This whole business about “seeing” is one big interesting thing. What we see, what we fail to see, what we consciously refuse to see and what we sub-consciously refuse to see. Again, I see it as interesting but you may not see it in the same way. That makes this “seeing” business even more interesting.
And if all of us see different things out there (and by seeing I do not mean the photograph kind of seeing which has only shapes and colors in 2-D; I mean the way we see which includes myriads of emotions, understanding, feelings, desires, actions and reactions), I wonder what is really there to be seen! If I see A, my friend sees B, another friend sees C, what really is out there? A, B or C? Or A, B and C? More than ABC or nothing at all?
And still, all the while we keep behaving as if what I see is correct and what you see is incorrect. It reminds of the story of four blind men touching different parts of the elephant and depending on what part they touch, they take it to be a different thing.
If we go by that story, it would appear that whatever is out there which is being seen by us is more than what we see. Still, in our rashness, we tend to behave as if what we see is all that is there to be seen.
Can I make myself see all that is there to be seen? Do I want to do it? Having seen that I see only partially; neither correctly nor incorrectly but partially, can I feign ignorance? But at the same time, not having seen all that is there to be seen, can I feign wisdom? Is this how Trishanku felt? Neither of heaven nor of earth.