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Invisible to the Eye


One of the many creatures that Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classical Little Prince encounters on the earth is a fox.  The creature approaches the Prince with a weird request.  “Please tame me,” pleaded the fox.  The Prince did not know the meaning of ‘tame’.  “It means to establish ties,” explained the fox.  Without the ties, the boy would be just another boy for the fox just as the fox would be just another fox for the boy who don’t need each other in any way.  “But if you tame me,” continues the fox, “then we shall need each other.  To me, you will be unique in all the world.  To you, I shall be unique in all the world.”

Little Prince and the Fox
When you establish the “ties” the person or thing becomes unique to you, the Prince understands.  He remembers the rose which he used to look after on his own planet.  He watered it, he made a special glass enclosure for its safety, he killed caterpillars for its sake.  The Prince refers to the rose with the personal pronoun ‘she’.  “It is she that I have listened to when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing,” he says. “Because she is my rose.”

Relationships do not require many words, reminds the fox.  “Words are the source of misunderstandings.  But you will sit a little closer to me, every day...”  The fox goes on to share its personal secret with the Prince.  “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  He also reminds the Prince that he must not ever forget what he has tamed. “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

Men have forgotten this, accuses the fox.  “Men have no more time to understand anything.  They buy things all readymade at the shops.  But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore.”

The latest Indispire theme [What do women need more today: equality or empathy?] brought the Little Prince and his fox to my mind.  Man has established his lordship not only over his own planet but also over the infinite cosmos whose mysteries are being probed by man-made telescopes roaming the interstellar spaces.   Yet why has he not been able to shape a civilisation in which the question of equality and empathy should not arise at all, especially for the whole half of the species?  Or are some of the fears grossly exaggerated?  Personally, I have seen many women who have wielded tremendous powers over men in workplaces.  I have seen men being made dumb asses by clever women who ascended the winding staircases and dark corridors of power in a world that reminded me of Kafka and his Castle.  Yet, of course, there are women too who still languish outside the Castle, I suppose, waiting for the corridors to open, waiting to ascend the staircases...

Perhaps, the question should not be about equality and empathy.  Perhaps, it is about the taming that the fox speaks about.

“The men where you live,” the Little Prince tells the narrator-human, “raise five thousand roses in the same garden – and they do not find in it what they are looking for.”  A little later he adds, “And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose, or in a little water.”  Then he concludes, “But the eyes are blind.  One must look with the heart...”

But our hearts are up there in the telescopes that are conquering the stars.



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  1. sunaina sharmaOctober 4, 2015 at 5:42 PM

    An interesting post here.....do you think 'taming' or 'establishing ties' as you mentioned, leads to empathy which in turn can lead to equality? Because what ties will teach will be a sense of belonging, a kind of bonding that will make the sharers responsible for each other....and from that responsibility will spring the ideas of respect and equality.....

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    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 4, 2015 at 7:30 PM

      Yes. And the only genuine solution lies in establishing those bonds, ties. Everything else will remain plastic surgeries or facelift attempts. But people, both men and women, don't want genuine solutions today. There are a lot of other things to be gained!

      Delete
  2. Roohi BhatnagarOctober 5, 2015 at 11:15 AM

    Whoa.. deep, very deep philosophy. I am enjoying the regular doses of your posts now and the way you tried to explain the problem and the solution :)
    True love is the harbinger of respect. It is the absence of ego within. Any man or a woman is unequal unless they understand and practice what exactly is meant by loving truly. And the ones who do, the question never arises for them. For rest, they are just lost in the world of maya, forgetting that our true nature is to love!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 5, 2015 at 6:39 PM

      What differentiates between maya and real is ignorance. I saw you mentioned ignorance in your comment on my post on Gandhi. What is maya for the Buddha is what is real for the layperson and vice-versa. The Buddha is as out of place in the world of the layperson as the layperson will be in the world of the Buddha. Hence the Buddha has to perish so that the ordinary persons will flourish.

      What is ego but ignorance, again? Lack of self-knowledge.

      Delete
  3. Sunshine-struckOctober 10, 2015 at 7:09 AM

    Great post. I have no words. Just glad to see your posts after a long break.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 10, 2015 at 12:50 PM

      I tried my best to stay away but couldn't. Certain things suffocate me until I get them out through words....

      Delete

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