Skip to main content

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.



Labels:

Comments

  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.....

    ReplyDelete
    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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...
12 comments
Read more

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a cliché. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...
7 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...
6 comments
Read more

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 comments
Read more