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Seeing with the heart

 


“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” Antoine de Saint-Exupery says in his classical little book, The Little Prince. “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” The most vital truths are not arrived at through reason. Even philosophers need to listen to their heart, as writer Eric Weiner says in The Socrates Express. The answers of the head are not only less satisfying, says Weiner, “but, in the deepest sense, less true.” It is not clever answers that the world needs. It is authentic answers which are required.

Authentic answers come from the heart. The great teachers were all people who sat with their ignorance and doubts for a long, very long while, before they arrived at answers that eventually made the world wiser.

When answers of the heart are lynched, we will have a perverse nation. Too many poets and writers of India are perishing behind the bars because they looked at the reality with their hearts. In a penetrating article titled ‘There is freedom, but no mercy’ in the New Indian Express today, the writer cites the examples of people like Varavara Rao. Rao, like many others imprisoned for being good human beings in Modi’s India, is suffering from serious medical problems as he languishes in the notorious Taloja Jail. What is his crime? He wrote poetry. He looked at India with his heart. And wrote lines like: “The foe fears the poet /Incarcerates him / But already the poet in his notes / Breathes among the masses.”

The poet finds a place in the hearts of the masses precisely because his truths come from his heart. But in a political system that has been perverted by the spread of falsehood and hatred, where the heart has been filled with venom, can we write from the heart? Can writers afford to be authentic?

It is very ironical that a ruthlessly oppressive politician like Amit Shah writes in a national daily blaming Nehru for the suppression of freedoms in India. As the writer of the above-mentioned Indian Express article concludes, when leaders (like Amit Shah) play games with the people, the leaders win and the people lose. The people are at the mercy of the state that is incapable of seeing with the heart. Such a nation will  glide into either dictatorship or degeneration. Either way, the future isn’t very promising. Unless the heart returns to the place it deserves.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.

 

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanJune 27, 2021 at 4:19 PM

    Hari OM
    Another excellent post! The manipulation of the mass media forms and the suppression of the independant ones (and individual voices) is all part of a picture of rule that harks back to very dark days indeed... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 27, 2021 at 10:17 PM

      We are living a large falsehood in India now. One big lie.

      Delete
  2. जितेन्द्र माथुरJune 27, 2021 at 4:42 PM

    It is not clever answers that the world needs. It is authentic answers which are required. You said it. Amit Shah has recently penned an article for The Times of India too. Our reputed newspapers and journalists are rubbing their noses in front of the high and the mighty now-a-days, thus losing all their dignity (earned over a life time).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 27, 2021 at 10:20 PM

      I've given the link to Amit Shah's article in the post without mentioning Times of India, a newspaper that is totally sold out. I stopped reading that paper. But I saw Amit Shah's article because somebody drew my attention to it. The way our newspapers and magazines have sold their souls to the mendacious government is pathetic.

      Delete
  3. Chinmayee Gayatree SahuJune 28, 2021 at 8:52 PM

    Certainly, repression of heartfelt thoughts and their expression has become the norm in the current times. We are also to be blamed to have chosen the ones mentioned above who think, they can rule for eternity! As rightly pointed out by you may the heart return to its right place!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 28, 2021 at 10:12 PM

      We are to be blamed for electing such leaders, no doubt. On the other hand, the leaders will learn certain lessons the hard way if they don't mend themselves.

      Delete
  4. Sandhya BhattaramJune 29, 2021 at 12:21 AM

    Enjoyed reading this post. A politician with a vision of a leader is what we need.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 29, 2021 at 9:07 AM

      Visionless politicians are the curse of India now.

      Delete
  5. Chetan MaheshwariJuly 3, 2021 at 11:19 AM

    Leaders always win, and people will continue to lose...No matter whoever gets elected, people will continue to lose. Systems need revolutionary changes which optimistically will take a decade or more

    ReplyDelete

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