( 4th Feb 2003)
We see people sitting on the sea beach making pattern son the sand. If the sand happens to be wet, they make small temples, domes and images of gods, goddesses,men and beasts. After making those sand sculptures,they inscribe their own names and the names of people they love. Then a bigger than usual wave comes and washes away those architectural designs, leaving not at race behind. The makers of those designs see their carefully made sand sculptures being washed away. But they are not greatly affected by that incident. They know that their works of art would be washed away by the waves or blown away by the wind or trampled upon by inattentive walkers sooner or later. Even if none of these hazards befalls these sand sculptures, they would disintegrate automatically when sand gets dry.The sitters need not be great philosophers to realize this simple truth and to take the demolition of their sand sculptures easy. Their commonsense and their knowledge about the material they use to make their sculptures and the place where they make them are enough to make them aware of the transitiveness of their works of art. In other words, their knowledge prepares them to face the mayhem of the wave and treat it as a non-event.Let’s stretch the situation a little further. We, who live in this world, make beautiful things, give concrete shape to our dreams and relate ourselves to others. Then a moment comes when the beautiful things we have created with so much of love and attention get erased due to a variety of reasons; the good relationships we have cultivated with so much care and affection become cool or even inimical. We are unable to take these occurrences easy, because we do not consider them transitory. On the contrary, we use choicest synonyms of permanence to glorify them. We always wish that our beautiful creations and our much-cherished relationships would continue forever.The French philosopher and litterateur Albert Camus makes a classic case out of such a situation. Once upon a time there was a man called Sisyphus in ancient Greece. Like all earthlings, that man had a great love for life. He did not like to die. When he came to the underworld after his death, he requested the king of that place, Pluto to permit him to return to the sunlit earth to finish an incomplete work. Pluto permitted him to return. Sisyphus finished his job,but refused to re-enter the dark infernal world of death. Finally Mercury had to drag him to the underworld by force. For his disobedience of the god sand his lust for life, Zeus awarded him an exemplary punishment. He was directed to push a huge rock to the summit of a hill and keep on doing it until the rock stays there. But the programmed rock would not stay put.For months, years and eons, Sisyphus must be doing that job of pushing the rock to the top of the hill without any chance of success. The rock rolls down to its original place of its own accord. Albert Camus found in the absurd plight of Sisyphus a metaphor for the condition of man on this earth. Zeus wanted to teach Sisyphus the ultimate futility of all human endeavours, and to make the poor mortal realize again and again how his hard labour comes to naught. Albert Camus tells us that Sisyphus has not only learnt the harsh lesson which Zeus wanted to hammer home, he has also scored a point over his divine tormentor by being wise about his condition and by refusing to be unhappy and heart-broken. He has learnt hard way not to entertain any illusion about the success of his mission. While pushing the rock uphill using all his might, he is convinced that it would again roll downhill. This awareness is important, because it liberates him from anticipation of success, and prepares him to cope with the transitiveness of life. Like Sisyphus, each mortal man is capable of possessing that awareness, that insight.It is needless to ask whether Sisyphus is happy or sad after realising the futility of all his labour. His sense of duty and the unavoidable nature of the assignment leave no room for personal emotions. This proletarian of the gods (as Camus calls Sisyphus) has to descend the hill at a slow pace with a stoical smile writ large on his face to start his work once again. The descending Sisyphus is the thinking man,wised up to the shape of things to come. Our desire for permanence makes us afraid impermanence. Our desire for meaning is always accompanied by a galling sense of futility. And when we have no illusions about the consequences of our activities, we are more or less like those sitters on the sea beach. Those sitters take the destruction of their sand sculptures easy because they have no illusions about their permanence. Getting down to the brass tacks, it is simply an attitude, that is, the way we think and feel about things. An attitude is nothing but a state of mind, away of looking at an event. That is to say, an attitude offers an angle through which we look at events, things and relationships. The manner in which we look at them determines the amount of our suffering on this earth. In a few cases, this attitude is given, but in most cases it is slowly formed in us, as the pearl in an oyster, through our study of scriptures, through our contact with the enlightened persons, through our contemplation on the nature of things, particularly their fleeting aspect, and through our practical experiences. Once formed, this attitude enables us to see the same old incident in anew way, in a lucid way. Like the sunshine it clears the dense fog of illusion. Our old habit of seeing is replaced by our fresh insight. The boon companion of this attitude is dispassion.If we know the inevitability and the nature of an occurrence, we take that occurrence as a natural one and are not greatly affected by it. The sitters in the beach had no illusions about the evanescent nature of their artistic creations. Their attitudes have already been formed to enable them to cope with that event.Sisyphus has acquired this attitude through his own experiences. His labour is not wasted. It endows him with that priceless attitude. That is the case with the individuals who look at life as the sitters in the seashore look at their sand sculptures and as the descending Sisyphus looks at his labour that is thrust upon him.
We see people sitting on the sea beach making pattern son the sand. If the sand happens to be wet, they make small temples, domes and images of gods, goddesses,men and beasts. After making those sand sculptures,they inscribe their own names and the names of people they love. Then a bigger than usual wave comes and washes away those architectural designs, leaving not at race behind. The makers of those designs see their carefully made sand sculptures being washed away. But they are not greatly affected by that incident. They know that their works of art would be washed away by the waves or blown away by the wind or trampled upon by inattentive walkers sooner or later. Even if none of these hazards befalls these sand sculptures, they would disintegrate automatically when sand gets dry.The sitters need not be great philosophers to realize this simple truth and to take the demolition of their sand sculptures easy. Their commonsense and their knowledge about the material they use to make their sculptures and the place where they make them are enough to make them aware of the transitiveness of their works of art. In other words, their knowledge prepares them to face the mayhem of the wave and treat it as a non-event.Let’s stretch the situation a little further. We, who live in this world, make beautiful things, give concrete shape to our dreams and relate ourselves to others. Then a moment comes when the beautiful things we have created with so much of love and attention get erased due to a variety of reasons; the good relationships we have cultivated with so much care and affection become cool or even inimical. We are unable to take these occurrences easy, because we do not consider them transitory. On the contrary, we use choicest synonyms of permanence to glorify them. We always wish that our beautiful creations and our much-cherished relationships would continue forever.The French philosopher and litterateur Albert Camus makes a classic case out of such a situation. Once upon a time there was a man called Sisyphus in ancient Greece. Like all earthlings, that man had a great love for life. He did not like to die. When he came to the underworld after his death, he requested the king of that place, Pluto to permit him to return to the sunlit earth to finish an incomplete work. Pluto permitted him to return. Sisyphus finished his job,but refused to re-enter the dark infernal world of death. Finally Mercury had to drag him to the underworld by force. For his disobedience of the god sand his lust for life, Zeus awarded him an exemplary punishment. He was directed to push a huge rock to the summit of a hill and keep on doing it until the rock stays there. But the programmed rock would not stay put.For months, years and eons, Sisyphus must be doing that job of pushing the rock to the top of the hill without any chance of success. The rock rolls down to its original place of its own accord. Albert Camus found in the absurd plight of Sisyphus a metaphor for the condition of man on this earth. Zeus wanted to teach Sisyphus the ultimate futility of all human endeavours, and to make the poor mortal realize again and again how his hard labour comes to naught. Albert Camus tells us that Sisyphus has not only learnt the harsh lesson which Zeus wanted to hammer home, he has also scored a point over his divine tormentor by being wise about his condition and by refusing to be unhappy and heart-broken. He has learnt hard way not to entertain any illusion about the success of his mission. While pushing the rock uphill using all his might, he is convinced that it would again roll downhill. This awareness is important, because it liberates him from anticipation of success, and prepares him to cope with the transitiveness of life. Like Sisyphus, each mortal man is capable of possessing that awareness, that insight.It is needless to ask whether Sisyphus is happy or sad after realising the futility of all his labour. His sense of duty and the unavoidable nature of the assignment leave no room for personal emotions. This proletarian of the gods (as Camus calls Sisyphus) has to descend the hill at a slow pace with a stoical smile writ large on his face to start his work once again. The descending Sisyphus is the thinking man,wised up to the shape of things to come. Our desire for permanence makes us afraid impermanence. Our desire for meaning is always accompanied by a galling sense of futility. And when we have no illusions about the consequences of our activities, we are more or less like those sitters on the sea beach. Those sitters take the destruction of their sand sculptures easy because they have no illusions about their permanence. Getting down to the brass tacks, it is simply an attitude, that is, the way we think and feel about things. An attitude is nothing but a state of mind, away of looking at an event. That is to say, an attitude offers an angle through which we look at events, things and relationships. The manner in which we look at them determines the amount of our suffering on this earth. In a few cases, this attitude is given, but in most cases it is slowly formed in us, as the pearl in an oyster, through our study of scriptures, through our contact with the enlightened persons, through our contemplation on the nature of things, particularly their fleeting aspect, and through our practical experiences. Once formed, this attitude enables us to see the same old incident in anew way, in a lucid way. Like the sunshine it clears the dense fog of illusion. Our old habit of seeing is replaced by our fresh insight. The boon companion of this attitude is dispassion.If we know the inevitability and the nature of an occurrence, we take that occurrence as a natural one and are not greatly affected by it. The sitters in the beach had no illusions about the evanescent nature of their artistic creations. Their attitudes have already been formed to enable them to cope with that event.Sisyphus has acquired this attitude through his own experiences. His labour is not wasted. It endows him with that priceless attitude. That is the case with the individuals who look at life as the sitters in the seashore look at their sand sculptures and as the descending Sisyphus looks at his labour that is thrust upon him.
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