Skip to main content

Zorba’s Secret

 


Alexis Zorba is the 65-year-old protagonist of Nikos Kazantzakis’s celebrated novel, Zorba the Greek. Zorba is the happiest person in the entire world of that novel. Age does not wither him and routine does not stale his infinite charm. What is the secret of his happiness?

Zorba lives in the present. He belongs to the here and now. The young narrator of the novel, who is an intellectual trying to discover the meaning of life using books and contemplation, feels as he listens to Zorba that the world is recovering its pristine freshness. “All the dulled daily things regained the brightness they had in the beginning,” the narrator says. Each day is a new day for Zorba, a new opportunity to start life afresh. Every morning the earth looks new to him. He sees everything as if for the first time. He does not really see it, he creates it.

In the words of the narrator, “The universe for Zorba, as for the first men on earth, was a weighty, intense vision; the stars glided over him, the sea broke against his temples. He lived the earth, the water, the animals and God, without the distorting intervention of reason.”

Logic and reason won’t bring you much happiness. They may bring you intellectual satisfaction. They may give you answers that satisfy your brain. But happiness is a matter of the heart. Unless you learn to see reality with your heart, you will never be really happy. The most essential truths are not revealed to reason.

Zorba sees with his heart. He is annoyed with the narrator who wants to understand everything. “You understand, and that’s why you’ll never have any peace,” Zorba scolds the narrator who is actually his boss. “If you didn’t understand, you’d be happy!” To arrive at a consciousness level that does not seek to understand everything, you need a touch of folly.

Even spirituality will not bring you happiness unless you have that quintessential folly within. Every person has his folly. But you need to admit your folly. You need to surrender to it. You will hardly find happy people in monasteries because amidst all the austerity and nobility there the soul is lost. The soul belongs on the side of your personal folly.

Zorba does not believe in God. Faith is complicated, he says. If you believe in God, you will have to believe in devils and so on. Yet he knows that both God and the devil are within us. Zorba gives the example of a monk he knew. Father Lavrentio believed that he had a devil inside him. He gave the devil a name too: Hodja. “Hodja wants to eat meat on Good Friday!” Lavrentio would cry beating his head on the church wall. “Hodja wants to sleep with a woman. Hodja wants to kill the Abbot. It’s Hodja, Hodja, it isn’t me!” Father Lavrentio would weep banging his head on the stone.

“I’ve a kind of devil inside me, too, boss,” Zorba says. “I call him Zorba.”

Accept the devil within ourselves. There is no escape from it. Accept it. Folly is needed for that too.

Zorba’s secret is the awareness of his personal folly. He doesn’t need to intellectualise anything. He understands everything with his heart. He lives life passionately. Life is a passion to be experienced, not a riddle to be solved.

Not everyone can be like him, of course. People are different. The narrator of the novel divides people into three types. There are those who eat, drink, make love, and grow rich. They live their own lives. Then there are people who make it their aim not to live their own lives but to concern themselves with the lives of other people. They think they possess the real truths and want to enlighten others. Finally there are those who aim at living the life of the entire universe. They are the mystics trying to turn all matter into spirit.

Zorba is not interested in that classification. He cuts it short saying that one should not hurt other people’s heart, that’s all. If there is a God, that God resides in the heart. All the mountains and oceans and deserts may not be enough to contain God. But your little heart can hold him, boss. Take care of what you do to people’s hearts. The rest doesn’t matter.

That is Zorba’s secret. Enjoy your life to the fullest. Eat, drink, make merry. Have a passion and live it. But don’t mess with other people’s hearts. This isn’t hard to do. Just try it.

PS. This is powered by #BlogchatterA2Z

Acknowledgement

This is the last post in this series whose 25 previous parts are available in this blog.

As the A2Z Challenge draws to a close, I would like to thank the Blogchatter Team for all the support they extended in various forms to bring this to a successful completion.

I’m immensely grateful to a few participants whose comments meant much to me during this exercise. Worthy of particular mention are Chinmayee Gayatree Sahu, Deepika Sharma, Arti Jain, and Rajeev Moothedath. Jitendra Mathur was not a part of this Challenge but has been graciously visiting my posts with a regularity that makes my heart bow in gratitude. Other unforgettable bloggers in this connection are: Purba Chakraborty, Ira Mishra, Huma Masood and Pooja Priyamvada.

 

 

 

Comments

  1. I have this book in my mom's library for so long. But never picked it up. Now with your post, I am getting tempted to read this book. Thanks for wonderful introduction Tom

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved what you wrote about the book. I will definitely try and read this one... Had heard of it but was skeptical. And thank you for the mention. I loved reading your posts daily
    Deepika Sharma

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zorba is one of my favorite novels. There is something of that character in me - a raw earthiness...

      Glad you were with me this month.

      Delete
  3. Very interesting and thought-provoking post. I will definitely read this book.
    And thank you for the mention, Sir.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Zorba" seems like an insightful book, very well depicted by your blog. Thanks for recommending it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kazantzakis was a very spiritual person at heart. Zorba is part of his spiritual enquiry.

      Delete
  5. I love zorba for he does not beat drums about perfection and sees reality in its face with all the follies intact. Thank you so much for the mention. It has been an honor to have your support and like always, I adore reading your enriching posts and see the world from your perspective.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You meant much to me last April. Thank you for that.

      Delete
  6. Of course Zorba is not religious. But, at the core Zorba is true spiritual person. True spirituality is to realise the essence of human life. The philosophy of ancient Rishi Charvak is somewhat similar to that of Zorba. Perhaps today we need a synthesis between Zorba and Buddha.
    Missed many of your posts this series. But like last year, you have a series of interesting posts. Will to come back for more.
    Remembering iconic Zorba is also a nice way to end the series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zorba is the antithesis of the Buddha, I think. If the Buddha is ethereal, Zorba is earthy.

      I'll be converting this series into an e-book with some editing and it will be available in public domain absolutely free of charge.

      Delete
    2. Just read your remark about your posts turning into a book. Looking forward to that.

      Delete
    3. Thank you. In case you are interested in my last years book of the same challenge, here is it: https://store.pothi.com/book/ebook-tomichan-matheikal-great-books-great-thoughts/

      The last chapter of that is also Zorba. 😊

      Delete
  7. "Enjoy your life to the fullest. Eat, drink, make merry. Have a passion and live it. But don’t mess with other people’s hearts. This isn’t hard to do. Just try it." I loved these words and try to live according to this principle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those who can internalise that tend to be happy people.

      Delete
  8. Such a beautiful message in the last post of the challenge" Take care of what you do to people’s hearts" nothing else matters. It was a pleasure to read your posts and be a part of the month long journey. Kudos and best wishes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 🙏🙏🙏
      I was delighted to have you with me throughout.

      Delete
  9. This Book seems very interesting , enwrapped with a great message in the form of Zorba's secret, "Enjoy your life to the fullest. Eat, drink, make merry. Have a passion and live it. But don’t mess with other people’s hearts." Would love to add it to my TBR.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a modern classic. You'll love it if you like serious reading.

      Delete
  10. To show you how much I've loved reading your Z post and re-discovering Zorba as if I'm seeing him for the first time ever, I will describe the spot I'm sitting at this very moment--
    On the steps of our tiny verandah looking at the garden, where a bulbul is busy coo-cooing and another is chirping a reply to her just as musically. The breeze, gentle and unusually cool for this time of the year, is making all the leaves tremble and the flowers nod--closed, old hibiscus buds look like old grannies at the temple, the tiny asters look like fireworks taking off.
    With that, I'd like to say thank you for writing such wonderful posts and for the mention above.
    Have a marvellous May:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 🙏🙏❤❤

      You made the exercise more meaningful.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Country where humour died

Humour died a thousand deaths in India after May 2014. The reason – let me put it as someone put it on X.  The stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra called a politician some names like ‘traitor’ which made his audience laugh because they misunderstood it as a joke. Kunal Kamra has to explain the joke now in a court of justice. I hope his judge won’t be caught with crores of rupees of black money in his store room . India itself is the biggest joke now. Our courts of justice are huge jokes. Our universities are. Our temples, our textbooks, even our markets. Let alone our Parliament. I’m studying the Ramayana these days in detail because I’ve joined an A-to-Z blog challenge and my theme is Ramayana, as I wrote already in an earlier post . In order to understand the culture behind Ramayana, I even took the trouble to brush up my little knowledge of Sanskrit by attending a brief course. For proof, here’s part of a lesson in my handwriting.  The last day taught me some subhashit...

56-Inch Self-Image

The cover story of the latest issue of The Caravan [March 2025] is titled The Balakot Misdirection: How the Modi government drew political mileage out of military failure . The essay that runs to over 20 pages is a bold slap on the glowing cheek of India’s Prime Minister. The entire series of military actions taken by Narendra Modi against Pakistan, right from the surgical strike of 2016, turns out to be mere sham in this essay. War was used by all inefficient kings in the past in order to augment the patriotism of the citizens, particularly in times of trouble. For example, the Controller of the Exchequer taxed the citizens as much as he thought they could bear without violent protest and when he was wrong the King declared a war against a neighbouring country. Patriotism, nationalism, and religion – the best thing about these is that a king can use them all very effectively to control the citizens’ sentiments. Nowadays a lot of leaders emulate the ancient kings’ examples enviabl...

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. ...

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...

Violence and Leaders

The latest issue of India Today magazine studies what it calls India’s Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). India is all poised to be an economic superpower. But what about its civic sense? Very poor, that’s what the study has found. Can GDP numbers and infrastructure projects alone determine a country’s development? Obviously, no. Will India be a really ‘developed’ country by 2030 although it may be $7-trillion economy by then? Again, no is the answer. India’s civic behaviour leaves a lot, lot to be desired. Ironically, the brand ambassador state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, is the worst on most parameters: civic behaviour, public safety, gender attitudes, and discrimination of various types. And UP is governed by a monk!  India Today Is there any correlation between the behaviour of a people and the values and principles displayed by their leaders? This is the question that arose in my mind as I read the India Today story. I put the question to ChatGPT. “Yes,” pat came the ...