The Dreams of the White Knight
I always thought that the questions were important. Not just questions, and of course not just the answers, ... but the whole journey from the questions till the answers (cliche, I know, can't help it. It's inevitable.) ... The process of going back and forth, back and forth -- like waves on the Hedvi beach that we camped on one night after a long ride.
But these days I don't hear the waves, forget about seeing them, or wetting my feet in them. So who is doing it then? Who is thinking about the larger questions? I mean, is it not important that someone, somewhere -- some people, some group or some person -- is thinking about them? ... Evaluating various points, counterpoints, seeing all sides of the crystal, and yet at the same time seeing it as a whole. Who is doing that?
I am getting increasingly dragged into lower levels of thought hierarchies. Sustenance. Suffering. Making LHS equal to RHS of all little equations. The jaggaurnaut of consumerism has numbed most of my other senses, and all I wonder is where and how I can download the next dvd rip. (I don't care if the storylines of movies keep growing worse and worse, I still go and watch them like a zombie -- the sequel, the third run -- all sorts of movies -- no stories though).
There is a collective consciousness, is there not? So where is getting expressed? I mean, look around you. Gone are the days where you could feel it, see it, hear it. You can, even today, after so long, feel the vibrations -- the ripples that are collectively called Socrates. Or Siddhartha Gautam. Or Spinoza. Or Marx. Or Einstein. Some right, some wrong. Some useful, some regressive. Ripples nevertheless.
But there are no new ripples.
Who is thinking about questions that involve a higher sphere of mindscape? I remember when I was in engineering school, we conducted debates like most enthusiastic students. One of the subject was whether Euthanasia be legalized. I remember working hard on the topic, with a lot of research. Who is doing that now? Who is thinking whether capital punishment be allowed or not? Who is asking about the purpose ... the purpose ... the 'porpoise', like Lewis Caroll says ?
There are questions in different mimes -- some overarching. Who is thinking about them? Then there are questions on behaviour. Questions on how to raise your children. Questions on what we should do so that we live a life worth calling it a life. Questions on existence, God and tolerance. Questions on ethics, morals, social structures, governance ... go further and you will encounter meanings, happiness, larger goals of life ...
Who is thinking of these things now? We, hoi polloi are not, because we think, rather know, that it is someone else's task. The rich are busy getting richer and the poor like you and I are busy dreaming of being rich ... Sustenance, like I said earlier. The artists are not thinking about these, because they are busy creating art (at best) or selling art (even better). I can assure you that students are not , because they are attending tuition classes. Teachers are not, because they are busy shuttling between those tuition classes. Our political leaders -- I am afraid I am having a nervous breakdown.
We waited and we thought and we waited ... for Stephan Hawking, but he did not speak much through his voice synthesizer. Or Roger Penrose, who got caught in strings and has become more incoherent than Scott Adams. Or Ken Wilber, who has become so difficult to understand and therefore inaccessible that sometimes I wonder, and most of the times I am sure, that it is a delibrate ploy.
Or Amartya Sen, who is arguing that Indians are argumentative, or arguable, or something like that. Or Kalam, who said something earlier about having wings of fire, but now makes some utterly silly statements like he will go for next term of presidency only if he is 'assured' of success or something like that. Hello, what the hell? It is like saying I will only take the HIV test if you assure me that it will come out negative.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that all these great thinkers and minds of our times have not contributed. Or have not done significantly. But it has still not caused a ripple. Even in this fast moving consumer goods life, where an entire world has come up -- virtual as well as in real -- with telecom and cheap hardware and blogs and other online, wired and plugged-in wonders, what is the net result? Has it moved the sphere of our collective wisdom?
The answer is not simple ... No answer to such questions is or should be simple ... But I hope the answer is yes. I hope that the Great White Knight who is dreaming of all of us, is seriously dreaming - maybe as they say the theta stage -- the positive, free flow, creative stage -- and is not gone in a much deeper state of delta or something, where there are no dreams, just emptiness -- dreamless sleep of lowest frequency brain waves.
May peace and tranquility be with you all, and hope that this peace and tranquility is pregnant with possibilities.
And hope that I get to hit the saddle of my bike soon enough, so that all this falls back in place, and a meaning emerges from this fog of confusion, like a dark, tough road ... sure, confident and with a destination.
Shalom,
Shreekant
p.s. A man approaches his thirties with great apprehension, caution and nervousness. Please be patient while I am going through the motions. The doctors will be here shortly.
But these days I don't hear the waves, forget about seeing them, or wetting my feet in them. So who is doing it then? Who is thinking about the larger questions? I mean, is it not important that someone, somewhere -- some people, some group or some person -- is thinking about them? ... Evaluating various points, counterpoints, seeing all sides of the crystal, and yet at the same time seeing it as a whole. Who is doing that?
I am getting increasingly dragged into lower levels of thought hierarchies. Sustenance. Suffering. Making LHS equal to RHS of all little equations. The jaggaurnaut of consumerism has numbed most of my other senses, and all I wonder is where and how I can download the next dvd rip. (I don't care if the storylines of movies keep growing worse and worse, I still go and watch them like a zombie -- the sequel, the third run -- all sorts of movies -- no stories though).
There is a collective consciousness, is there not? So where is getting expressed? I mean, look around you. Gone are the days where you could feel it, see it, hear it. You can, even today, after so long, feel the vibrations -- the ripples that are collectively called Socrates. Or Siddhartha Gautam. Or Spinoza. Or Marx. Or Einstein. Some right, some wrong. Some useful, some regressive. Ripples nevertheless.
But there are no new ripples.
Who is thinking about questions that involve a higher sphere of mindscape? I remember when I was in engineering school, we conducted debates like most enthusiastic students. One of the subject was whether Euthanasia be legalized. I remember working hard on the topic, with a lot of research. Who is doing that now? Who is thinking whether capital punishment be allowed or not? Who is asking about the purpose ... the purpose ... the 'porpoise', like Lewis Caroll says ?
There are questions in different mimes -- some overarching. Who is thinking about them? Then there are questions on behaviour. Questions on how to raise your children. Questions on what we should do so that we live a life worth calling it a life. Questions on existence, God and tolerance. Questions on ethics, morals, social structures, governance ... go further and you will encounter meanings, happiness, larger goals of life ...
Who is thinking of these things now? We, hoi polloi are not, because we think, rather know, that it is someone else's task. The rich are busy getting richer and the poor like you and I are busy dreaming of being rich ... Sustenance, like I said earlier. The artists are not thinking about these, because they are busy creating art (at best) or selling art (even better). I can assure you that students are not , because they are attending tuition classes. Teachers are not, because they are busy shuttling between those tuition classes. Our political leaders -- I am afraid I am having a nervous breakdown.
We waited and we thought and we waited ... for Stephan Hawking, but he did not speak much through his voice synthesizer. Or Roger Penrose, who got caught in strings and has become more incoherent than Scott Adams. Or Ken Wilber, who has become so difficult to understand and therefore inaccessible that sometimes I wonder, and most of the times I am sure, that it is a delibrate ploy.
Or Amartya Sen, who is arguing that Indians are argumentative, or arguable, or something like that. Or Kalam, who said something earlier about having wings of fire, but now makes some utterly silly statements like he will go for next term of presidency only if he is 'assured' of success or something like that. Hello, what the hell? It is like saying I will only take the HIV test if you assure me that it will come out negative.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that all these great thinkers and minds of our times have not contributed. Or have not done significantly. But it has still not caused a ripple. Even in this fast moving consumer goods life, where an entire world has come up -- virtual as well as in real -- with telecom and cheap hardware and blogs and other online, wired and plugged-in wonders, what is the net result? Has it moved the sphere of our collective wisdom?
The answer is not simple ... No answer to such questions is or should be simple ... But I hope the answer is yes. I hope that the Great White Knight who is dreaming of all of us, is seriously dreaming - maybe as they say the theta stage -- the positive, free flow, creative stage -- and is not gone in a much deeper state of delta or something, where there are no dreams, just emptiness -- dreamless sleep of lowest frequency brain waves.
May peace and tranquility be with you all, and hope that this peace and tranquility is pregnant with possibilities.
And hope that I get to hit the saddle of my bike soon enough, so that all this falls back in place, and a meaning emerges from this fog of confusion, like a dark, tough road ... sure, confident and with a destination.
Shalom,
Shreekant
p.s. A man approaches his thirties with great apprehension, caution and nervousness. Please be patient while I am going through the motions. The doctors will be here shortly.
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