Skip to main content

Stained Reality


“Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, / Stains the white radiance of eternity...”  Like the other Romantic poets, P B Shelley was unhappy with the inevitable stains of life. One of the many stains or imperfections is our inability to perceive reality clearly. Reality comes into our consciousness through a lot of filters that have become a part of our very being.  Our past experiences, our prejudices, beliefs, convictions, desires, culture, religion, political affiliation... a whole range of things acts as the filters.

For example, take ourselves, human beings.  “What a piece of work is a man,” exclaimed Hamlet in spite of himself.  Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark saw human being as a paradoxical creature that is noble in reason, infinite in faculties, admirable in form, angelic in action and godlike in apprehension.  Yet the Prince ended up hating many human beings and killing quite a few.  Hamlet’s whole perception and understanding of reality was tainted thoroughly by one awareness: about his mother’s marital infidelity and his uncle’s role in it.  The awareness turned Hamlet’s world upside down.  The mental filters were transmuted and the sensitive poet became an impulsive killer.


Reality is not something fixed once and for all.  Reality is what you and I perceive and comprehend. Science tells me that my modest body (modest in physical size) is the equivalent of 30 very large hydrogen bombs.  Yeah, an ordinary human body contains no less than 7x1018 joules of potential energy which is what 30 big hydrogen bombs release on explosion. So am I just a bundle of atoms?

It depends on which filter you are looking through.  For the nuclear scientist I am a huge reservoir of protons, electrons and neutrons.  For my religious friends, I am a soul in dire need of redemption.  Are souls made up of protons and electrons?  The scientist may laugh at the question.  Souls are too ethereal to be caught in the scientific filter.

Reality is what the filters of your mind catch.  The cow may be potential steak or kinetic gaumata depending on your mental filters.  Jallikettu is a cultural fest or brutality to oxen depending on your mental filters. 

So what is reality?  Reality is what you see and understand.  Blessed are those who can see from many angles and comprehend different perspectives; a whole world of entertainment, if not Shelley’s white radiance of eternity, is theirs.


PS. Written for Indispire Edition 153: #RealityMyPerspective

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Jyotirmoy SarkarJanuary 20, 2017 at 10:21 AM

    Very logical analysis Sir, that's what expected from you, examples are fantastic specially the Hydrogen Bomb concept.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 20, 2017 at 10:35 AM

      Glad you liked it. Thanks for suggesting the theme :) It's not often we get such philosophical themes at Indispire.

      Delete
  2. sunaina sharmaJanuary 20, 2017 at 7:28 PM

    Perceptions remain subjective, and truths are just 'versions' of those perceptions.....Reality for me can be an illusion to you and vice versa....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anita SabatJanuary 21, 2017 at 12:50 AM

    Yes indeed. Our reality is more than all the atoms in our body :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 21, 2017 at 6:32 AM

      The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, as they say in Gestalt psychology.

      Delete
  4. Utpal KhotJanuary 21, 2017 at 11:30 AM

    You always have a logic there which makes one relate to what you write. Nice post. :)

    UK
    http://fashionablefoodz.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 21, 2017 at 11:33 AM

      Glad you could relate to it. I try my best to be the rational creature (human being) which I am meant to be. :)

      Delete
  5. GeethicaJanuary 21, 2017 at 2:24 PM

    Our human body has so much of potential energy but we use only 1/10th of it. Most of the time we are not aware of our brain's power.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 21, 2017 at 2:31 PM

      Brain power is a different matter altogether. The potential energy I mentioned belongs to the body itself, the atoms, which can be converted using Einstein's famous formula E = mc2 and, of course, a lot of technology. The tech is too costly. Otherwise many people would already have been converted into energy sources by now just as Hitler used the Jews for making soaps and fertilisers.

      Delete
  6. जितेन्द्र माथुरJanuary 23, 2017 at 11:19 AM

    You said it Sir. Reality is only what is seen and understood. Besides, definitely blessed are those who can view it from different angles and thereby pick-up varying perspectives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 23, 2017 at 12:10 PM

      Wrong perceptions and lack of understanding convert reality into illusion, maya.

      Delete
  7. Durga Prasad DashJanuary 24, 2017 at 8:29 PM

    As human beings we have our limitations and our perception of reality is definitely blurred and colored. And of course it is good to have different perspectives. Great article, Sir

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 25, 2017 at 6:19 AM

      The most perfect being would be the one who can see everything and understand.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
31 comments
Read more

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...
10 comments
Read more

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...
4 comments
Read more

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...
13 comments
Read more

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...
8 comments
Read more