Easter brings to mind the
resurrection of Jesus. But Easter was
celebrated even before Jesus. It was a
spring festival. Many states in India
have similar festivals. Vishu in Kerala
and Bihu in Assam are examples.
In Western literary
traditions, winter symbolises death and spring is the harbinger of new life. “April is the cruellest month,” begins T S Eliot’s
classical poem, The Waste Land. The
Eliotean waste land is a metaphor for the aridity of modern life. In such a world there is only perpetual
winter, winter that keeps us warm. Our
life is no better than death, implies Eliot.
We live death-in-life existence clutching lifeless roots in “this stony
rubbish”.
Easter, or resurrection as
it has come to mean today, is a celebration of new life. Spring comes with a new life that stirs up
the dull roots that lay beneath the snow in winter, to use the Eliotean
metaphor.
The whole Christian
concept of the Holy Week which starts a week before Easter Sunday is an
interesting look at life. Palm Sunday,
one week before Easter, commemorates the glorious entry of Jesus to Jerusalem on
the back of a donkey. The donkey
indicates that the glory is ephemeral.
Soon Jesus, the man who was raised by the people to the position of a
king on the Palm Sunday, would be betrayed and crucified, by the same
people! Those who sing alleluias for you
today will demand your blood tomorrow if all that you are offering is wisdom,
because wisdom is not what they hanker after.
Jesus shed his blood for
those same people who had hoped that he would redeem them from their slavery to
the Romans. From political bondage. But Jesus was not interested in political
liberations. He was as cranky as the
Greek Diogenes who lived in a barrel
mocking the security people built up like fortresses round them. He was no different from the Buddha who lived the life of the
birds in the sky and the lilies in the wilderness.
From Nehru Planetarium, Delhi |
The new life, the
liberation, Jesus promised was different from what people of any time have been
looking for. It was a liberation from
the bondages of the spirit. It was a
liberation from the capitulation of human dignity to the glitters of the trivia. It was an invitation to go beyond the body to
the soul (or consciousness, as I would like to put it). An invitation to rise above the animal
existence to the level of the angels (beings who have conquered physical
passions and emotions).
The problem with such
teaching as Jesus’ and the Buddha’s and that of Diogenes and others of the kind
is that it makes superhuman demands. It
mocks our very simple delights and pleasures.
It makes our existence look like a caricature of what it should be. That’s why we would rather keep Jesus, the
Buddha and Diogenes on the pedestal and worship them rather than let them walk
with us.
It's really difficult to walk with the ideals of Buddha or Jesus. It is true. Happy Easter to you, sir. And a very Happy Birthday to you. You've got two great reasons to gobble up cake pieces. Please, share some with me. :D
ReplyDeleteThank you, Namrata, for the wonderful wishes.
DeleteWell written.... The demands seem superhuman to us, and we feel its too much to do..
ReplyDeleteJust imagine even if half the human population were to rise to the level of consciousness that Jesus or the Buddha taught... the world would be a veritable paradise.
DeleteWe celebrated our Bengali new year ( Naba Barsha) last week..a very happy Easter to you Sir .. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Maniparna. Wish you too a happy New Year. New year should ideally begin in April, with spring.
DeleteVery true....having them on pedestal is easy than being on pedestal :)
ReplyDeleteAnd lock them up too, Pankti. Make rules for them pretending that the rules are for us!
DeleteLOL...never thought about it!
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