Resting in Peace

Quite often we talk about ourselves running around like looney tunes trying to get everything possible in this world. Like, at the end it would leave us happy ! Usually, that is not the case but we learn it often the hard way. 

Anyways, I was reading a blog today which reminded me of something that I had posted before on my blog here. It also reminded me that I had another story of Alexander the Great or Sikandar (as we know him in the subcontinent) to share.

After winning the rest of the world, Sikandar eyed the wealth of India. So, he along with his legions marched towards India. When trying to enter India, he and his army had to cross a river. While crossing the river, Sikandar saw a Sage lying around leisurely outside his hut on the river banks. It made him curious. Sikandar went to him and ask what are you doing ? The Sage replied that he was "resting in peace". The answer left Sikandar a little confused. He thought, what a useless guy and carried on with his march.

Sikandar went on his conquest of capturing many kingdoms of Northern India which eventually took its toll on may lives. Cities were ruined, people were killed, all for the sake of more and more. On his way back after winning the kingdoms and extending his empire, his caravan again passed through the same Sage he met on his way to India. Sikandar made it a point to visit the Sage and talk to him. He went to the Sage and proudly declared what he had won and how he had extended the boundaries of his empire. After listening Sikandar's tales of glory, the Sage asked him, O King, what will you do now once you have won almost the complete world ? Feeling satisfied, Sikandar replied, I will now be "resting in peace". Amused at Sikandar's reply, the Sage laughed at him. Sikandar, finding a little discomfort in the the Sage's laugh asked him what was so amusing in that ? The Sage replied, what you will do now, is what I was doing when you passed me, i.e. "resting in peace".

The moral of the story is not that we should just sit and do nothing all our lives but that while working and doing our designated jobs, not to get lost in the idea of more and more.

Betrayal

There are two kinds of lunatics, insane and crazy people existing in this world. People, whose thought processes drops down below the common understanding of normal, regular people are one such kind. Another kind are those whose thought processes far exceeds the logic and morality of common people. Since in both the cases, an average person with an average intellect cease to understand both the kinds, he easily labels them as lunatics. Somewhere around 900 AD, lived a man called Mansoor Al-Hallaj who was a Mystic and a Sufi poet/writer from a region of Persia which is now modern day Iraq. He belonged to the latter category of the two kinds who was sentenced to death by the then existing king for blasphemy.

He had a better and higher understanding of the almighty but his ways of expressing himself were not in line with the understanding of common people of his time including his king. His thoughts were above the standards existing then. He was a devout Muslim and knew the Quran by heart. His simple life and words of virtues influenced many people, thus creating many followers for him. In moments of ecstasy, trance and meditation he used to chant, Anal Haq meaning 'I am the truth'. He started making enemies among people who translated this as him saying, 'I am God'. He used to say there is no difference between me and God. We are one and the same thing. For this he was charged with blasphemy and sentenced to death. What no one understood was that by saying 'I am God' he actually was too humble to acknowledge his own existence in front of God. By saying that 'I am a follower and servant of God' creates two existence, 'I' and 'God' but he was so humble that he completely denied his own existence, that he is nothing, null, zero for 'Him'. What exists is only God and nothing else. Decades later, Rumi presented a beautiful understanding of this concept in one of his works.

I dont know if I was clear above but let me explain taking an example. Most of us know the famous Pythagoras Theorem, i.e. In a right angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. If a,b,c are sides of a triangle and c is the hypotenuse, then

a² + b² = c²

Now, if Mr. Pythagoras would have simply given the above equation without actually deriving it or proving it, everyone would have called him a lunatic. Therefore, for the understanding and realization of common man, he had to give a derivation proving the left side of the equation is equal to the right side of equation. Mansoor's case was similar but the problem was that he directly gave the end result to the people in a state of trance without actually proving it. He did not considered important to explain his experience with each and everyone.

There exist many different versions of his ending. Some say he was hanged, some say he was cut into pieces and some say he was stoned to death. It is not important what happened but there was an interesting incident that happened then which I once read about.

He had a good friend named Shivli (not sure about the name). They were good friends and Shivli understood him completely, about what he meant through his experiences and was very close to him. They shared a common understanding on spiritual matters which was a base of their friendship. Now the king ordered the punishment of stoning to death for Mansoor. The day was decided and everyone gathered with stones in their hands to throw at Mansoor. Now, Shivli was in a huge dilemma. If he did not threw a stone at him, he would be considered his accomplice in crime and might have to face the same punishment. On the other hand, if he threw a stone at him it would be against the ethics of friendship and denying what he meant was correct. Finally, the stoning started and to everyone's surprise Mansoor started laughing with each stone he received. Even with blood spurting out of his body he kept laughing and was happy in his trance that the people are making it easier for him to meet his God. Now Shivli, in this moment of half denial, took a rose flower half heartdley and threw at Mansoor just in order to fit in the crowd. But with the soft hit of the flower, Mansoor screamed with excruciating pain. Shivli was flabbergasted seeing his reaction. He politely asked Mansoor that why did you screamed when I hit you with a soft, delicate flower ? You were laughing with joy when stones were hurled at you by others. Why such a different attitude towards me ? Mansoor, in throes of utter pain replied to Shivli that I considered 'you' a friend. I thought that at least 'you' would understand me. At least 'you' were also of the same school of thought like me. At least 'you' understood the meaning of God and his existence. I was laughing at people hurling stones at me because I considered them ignorant. But you betrayed me by throwing that flower. That flower has caused thousand times more pain to me than those stones.

Last weekend, a friend of mine left me with a similar pain. When the trust you have build up in someone is betrayed you feel that pain. 

   

Dancing about Architecture

For some people, LOVE can be a very dangerous word and for some it might be quite an overrated one. There has never been a fixed definition of this word and many people say there never will be. Fair enough! I think everyone has his own definition of love. Like, my boss defines love as when he kicks away his pet cat at home and she still comes back to him, that is love. I ended up laughing my lungs out after listening this and a little shocked when I came back to my senses. To some extent it might be true but I don't think I will go all the way with his theory. Anyways, he has such interesting albeit a little shocking stuff to say sometimes.

I have observed recently that this word is slowly loosing its charm. It is being used very cheaply these days. I see people starting and ending their relationships based on Love. Some people who even once said they loved each other, sometime down the line declare that they are having a clean break-up. Now, with little brain that I have, I was never able to understand such scenarios. Is it really possible that if you really like and love someone, then one day you have no feelings for him/her and don't love each other. Was it really love to begin with? Is it just a kind of switch that you press on and off at will? I never understood such concepts. Moreover, I feel that these days, the society is slowly putting in a lot of pressure on people who really define and believe in the true value of love. A guy writing a poem for his love or expressing it in similar ways are sometimes looked down upon as gayish or even that the guy is such a loser. The same goes for the girl. A girl truly and deeply in love with someone is seen as unambitious and giving up his personal life for a stranger. The bad is the new good these days, I believe. Specially with the new generation TV programs which I see people liking sometimes make me redefine many things around me.

Anyways, I think I already did a lot of blabbering though I really wanted to revive some old folk love stories. I can talk of some which I am more familiar with because of my social background. Maybe there are many more and interesting ones from other cultures. Would be great if people share some. The most popular ones which I know are Heer Ranjha, Sassi Punnu, Sohni Mahiwal, Mirza Sahiba etc. But the one which had always fascinates me the most and close to my heart is Laila Majnu. The true story of virgin love which therefore also appear in a lot of Sufi poems. It is a very interesting story and I am sure many of the readers might also know it. But only a few people know that this story is originally from Arabic literature, later got its Persian version and then at end came to the subcontinent with its own version. But the basic idea and the main characters remained unchanged on their journey. Not many people also know that Laila was actually not very fair and Majnu was always teased over this aspect. And to which he always replied that people don't have the eyes to see what I see as mentioned by a poet in one of his poems:

kise keha jad majnu teri laila rang di kaali

aggon maju jhath kurlaya, akh na dekhan waali

Laila means night and Majnu means crazy though Majnu's real name was Qays. But true to the meaning of their names, Qays went crazy for Laila after he got to know that she was married to someone else. Rest we know is history. Qays died in a desert searching his love and Laila due to illness. Of course there are other versions of the story. But what hit upon me was the similarity to some extent which I saw in this Bollywood movie lately, Rockstar. The movie was okay in the sense that it left the judgement of the story totally on the audience to make at the end. That is how such a movie should be and I believe everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. So at least speaking for myself, the movie was quite a contrast to the story I mentioned above. The only thing strange for me was that when the characters in the movie had so much feeling for each other then why did they not had the courage to end up together in the first place rather than doing it later ? In a modern day world, why would anyone end up in a loveless marriage as the girl in the film. And if for any reasons the lovers end up with different partners, why to go outside the institution of marriage later ending up in adultery. The characters in the movie doing it and people praising the story made me realize that maybe it has now become socially acceptable to take such steps.

A similarity I sometimes find in unfulfilled love stories is that the guy at the end finds resort in poetry or music. Maybe this is his way of expressing himself. Qays also wrote poems when he was lost in the desert, the character in the movie becomes a Rockstar. Another example coming to my mind right now is Shiv Kumar Batalvi, a famous poet/writer of Punjabi literature. The love of his life was married to some other guy and this guy then started writing poems which now takes an important place in Punjabi literature. From modern day life, I have a very close acquaintance who wrote a book (in 2009) about the untimely death of his fiance´ before getting married. The book turned out to be a bestseller in India. 

I might be totally wrong or naive in what I said above and maybe there is more to love than just words like madam Jolie said in the movie, 'Playing by Hearts' .... talking about love is like dancing about architecture.


P.S: I have no idea what I have written above !