Hmm its described wonderfully here
Still i thot i will write about it so here is a brain dump, it is random and hazy, you have been warned;-).
The bone of contention is perception, your outlook towards life, your actions, your responses/reactions are all shaped by perceptions. So how do we seperate the absolute from what we perceive. So what is absolute. Hmm food for nourishment of body, physical health, mainly pertaining to the physical self. Wat else. What about happiness? Some ppl do not expect anything from life, learn to take everything in their stride, be happy, some are blissfully ignorant and are happy, some manage to find sadness anywhere, and some are lost in their own worlds, confused. Absolutes governing them are the same, but perceptions, approaches and attitudes, results differ.
Welll how important is satiation of the desires? Would they ever cease? I notice myself at my office sometimes, and whenever i hit upon a problem, i feel like running away from it and going to some fairy land, where there are no problems. Part of me tells me that i should do something more "fruitful", satisfying, and maybe something more intellectual, and a part tells me its all perception, so watz the point dude? In the recent past, i realized it was good to have some short term goals, the fullfillment of them gives satisfaction and pleasure, but is dat absolute? I guess a jehadi and a yogi have a similar state of mind, they are totally committed to a cause, and gain "satisfaction" from their endeavours, but the "civilised" world has vastly contrasting perceptions for these ppl. Deja vu.
Being in the present does give you a joy, but you do like to know, wat is it all for; where does it lead to, for wht purpose are the actions performed by me directed. Indecision, confusion, impatience, fear, desires reigns supreme in me sometimes. The most pleasant part of the day is when i drive down on my bike at break neck speed, skipping redlights, avoiding collisions. Being in the present does have its fun, i don't deny that.
Btw there was this joke that i read, if you put two piles of grass equi-distant from a donkey, it will starve itself to death. Somehow, it does not feel dat funny any more, the fact that it was funny seems funny.
Balance is dat the elusive word? Hmm food for thought. Enjoy life as it comes, avoid inner conflicts, fullfillment of desires, good health, hmm lets see, freedom from thought, and meaning of life?. Hmm.
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7 comments:
a wonderful rendition ..... the quintessential dilemma without escape :-) !!
to add to the problem - absolutes have perceptions and perceptions absolutes.
shift the vantage - shift the view .. digitization is a key and balance had its own parts.
Btw the see-saw was supposed to be only part of the playground !
and yet the beauty of it all is - to fail :-)
Thanks Gaurav, for what you explicity said, and what you left unsaid. Yup truth might be a personal journey, need to figure the co-ordinates myself:-)
Damn bb, everytime i read something by you i can't stop bursting into laughter. Your choice of words, the construcions of sentences, and the conciseness is unique. Remember Mrs Talwar's assesment of ur maths exam: you know everything, i know everthing, why write:-)
Btw when r u coming to India, please scrap, i am gonna borrow money from you, yes:-)(that is an absolute statement, please don't tax ur perceptions on this)
I think a jehadi and a Yogi have completely different states of mind. A yogi is only trying to align himself to the cosmic spirit or whatever you call it, so the outcomes are the best not for himself but for the whole scheme of things; there is no "self" for a true Yogi. A Jehadi has a "personal" cause, a desire that he wants to fulfill and works hard to achieve it.
Another difference - A yogi focuses on the means (a true one on the "right" means) and a Jehadi on the ends!
How are they the same?
And btw, it was a nice piece of writing.
Well we like to believe that a yogi is the one who sacrifices his life for the good of others, but how do we define good? It is good, compared to what?. Helping miserabe ppl come out of distrss is good, or does it interfere in the darwins' law of survival of the fittest? Ain't "goodness" also a perspective? If you look at jehadi from His perspective, he is doing good, as he thinks best. He is even giving away his life. What personal cause does it serve? Satisfaction, living life to what he thinks fit? Doesn't a yogi suffer the same paradox. Didn't krishna bhagwaan kill so many rakshas, was that wrong or was that right. Now we can say he was on the path of truth and dharma, but who defines them anyway. There is this debate among educated Dalits, that Hinduism is the most unfair religion of all, you are born unequal, and the saga continues. If somebody has wronged me seriously, do i have the right to do the same? If i believe in Gandhigiri, wouldn't ppl take advantage of my passiveness. Yeah eventually i might be proved right, but in the long run, isnt' everybody dead? Yeah we can argue back and forth.
what's funny is that i wanted to argue the perception of yogi and jihadi as well but in reading the comments i don't think i can.
the canadian or grew up in a fundamentally christian society or not indian or not growing up in a more muslim society perspective is totally different.
here jihad is perceived as something that isn't necessarily sane. it's grouped with fundamentalists and hard core religious zealots and there's no real possibility that jihad could ever be a positive force.
and yogi is simply someone who is seeking understanding through yoga. neither positive nor negative. the more gifted teachers are yoginis... but i think those words mean different things for you?
My point was maybe what we think as sane might be insane for somebody else, and vice-a-versa.
The meanings are similar to me.
Yogi means somebody who has renounced the worldly pleasures for some higher purpose, especially englightenment.
Jihadi is seen as somebody who is hell bent on killing other people and dying with them. But if you look at it from his/her perspective, hez giving up his life for some higher good, he thinks hez gonna go to heaven after his deed.
From a neutral perspective, the meanings might be different, but from the perspective of the persons involved, the aim and sacrifice is similar.
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