Skip to main content

Perspective




Perspective matters more than anything else because it determines how you see the world and how you see determines what you do with it.  All these people who go about fighting and killing in the name of their gods and totems have their own perspectives.  Those who create the flyovers and skyscrapers have their perspectives too.  What should really worry us is the importance enjoyed by the fighter and the killer while the builder remains in the darkness of the background. 

The fighters and killers have become important because our own perspectives are so limited, so contaminated and so perverted.  If only we could see a world in a grain of sand, like William Blake, and heaven in a wild flower, we would be infinitely more spiritual than all these fighters and killers who claim to be god’s own people. 

As Albert Einstein said, a person who is religiously enlightened is one who has liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings and aspirations that foster the welfare of all creatures, of the planet itself.  Religion is a relationship.  Religion is a benign relationship.  It can never seek the destruction of anyone.

That’s why what is being promoted in the country nowadays in the name of religion is not religion at all.  It is just a perversion. 

The remedy is to widen our perspectives.  Learn more.  Understand more.  Reach out for the stars and you will see the wild flower opening up a heaven at your feet.  The perspective makes all the difference. 

Comments

  1. The last paragraph is deep. I will remember to use it at an appropriate place in the near future.

    What creates a false sense of nationalism? The soldiers, the enemies, the deaths and the martyrs. Can building a bridge, hospitals, research institutes, museums etc have that effect on the spirit of nationalism?

    One has not only to see everything but be everything to have a broader perspective.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. False nationalism is a product of ignorance or sheer villainy. Villains generally have political agenda. Ignorance has many faces like a student of mine who is now a lawyer and believes that Hinduism is in danger and hence requires militant defenders!

      Being everything is an eminent idea. Mystics are capable of that.

      Delete
  2. Better to be a fence-sitter. Makes you open to perspectives from differing ideologies. But that's not so easy, is it?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My cat Plato and a question of Do I Belong?

Kingini (middle) and Plato Kingini, my demure and pretty cat, was going to give birth. So she started pampering me very uncharacteristically. She would never let me pamper her. She wouldn’t even come near me except for food. So, when she started rubbing her golden fur against my shin, I knew it was time for me to arrange her labour room. For my earlier queens, I used cardboard cartons in which Amazon delivered stuff. But now Amazon is using some cheap plastic-like material for delivering items. So I brought a plastic basket, the largest I could find in the shop I know, and made a bed of newspapers and a piece of a bedsheet. Kingini approved of it. In a few days’ time, on 7 Feb 2025 to be precise, Kingini gave birth to two cute kittens that looked exactly like my Plato, my beloved male cat who is the first son of Kingini. X Plato was named after the philosopher on a sheer whim of mine. I had had a drink when I christened him. That’s how it usually works: a bit of brandy or whisky ...

A grammatical contemplation

Illustration by Google Gemini “Being alone has this negative connotation, like it’s a punishment, but you’re learning to be friends with yourself,” says a Time article quoting a young college graduate who had just migrated to a new city where she had no friends or relatives. She became her own best friend, she says, instead of going in search of other friends. She went on solo hikes, to concerts, museums, movies, and dinners. Solitude is very useful, the article goes on to argue. It can be a means of self-care and self-exploration. The article also suggests some solo activities like low-skates outing and cultivating a hobby. I’m leaving my teaching profession at the end of this month. Maggie asked me what I’d do with all the free time. Wouldn’t I feel lonely sitting at home? She knows very well that I love to read a lot, write occasionally, and travel whenever I feel like. So I’m not going to have any problem with how to spend all the time that would lie at my disposal from Mar...

The Second Crucifixion

  ‘The Second Crucifixion’ is the title of the last chapter of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s magnum opus Freedom at Midnight . The sub-heading is: ‘New Delhi, 30 January 1948’. Seventy-three years ago, on that day, a great soul was shot dead by a man who was driven by the darkness of hatred. Gandhi has just completed his usual prayer session. He had recited a prayer from the Gita:                         For certain is death for the born                         and certain is birth for the dead;                         Therefore over the inevitable             ...

Pearls and ... bullies

  Fiction Mollusc (mollusk, in American English) Little Johnny went as usual to his grandma when he was bored of everything else.  Grandma would tell him interesting stories.  Johnny was carrying his mother’s latest pearl necklace that came free with the saris she had ordered online.  “Pearls,” said grandmother fondling the necklace.  “Shall I tell you the story of pearls today? Johnny was excited.  Do pearls have a story too? Yes, they do, said grandma.  A great story.  Do you want to hear it? Of course, Johnny was all ears.  Pearls are found inside the body of creatures living in the oceans, started grandma.   Shell fish.  Molluscs.  They are extremely tender creatures.  Like the soft boys and girls you may see at school.  Do you see such boys and girls? Yes, there are some.  Johnny agreed.  What happens to them?  Asked grandma. Boys bully them. Exact...

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