Skip to main content

Paradises Lost


The choice was between awareness and paradise. Paradise was lost in that conflict. That is how the Bible tells the story of the origin of humankind. The great English poet, John Milton, converted that myth into one of the most moving epic poems titled Paradise Lost. Paradise had to be lost if the human creature had to rise above the state of being a mere animal, a creature with a lower consciousness level. Adam and Eve were innocent until they ate the fruit of knowledge, the forbidden fruit. The only condition that God had put on the first couple was that they should not strive to rise above being mere animals. “Do not eat the fruit of knowledge” meant that Adam and Eve should remain as ignorant and hence as innocent as the other animals in Paradise. Paradise is a state of innocence. It is not a place. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they lost innocence but gained awareness or a higher level of consciousness.

Milton’s epic poem presents Eve as “our credulous mother.” It is because of her credulousness that Satan tempted her rather than Adam. Credulousness is a version of innocence. Eve gets punished for her credulousness. Is credulousness a vice and cunning a virtue? In order to escape Satan’s temptation, what Eve really required was cunning. She lacked that cunning. Is that a vice? Well, in the creation myth of the Bible, yes. At least Milton suggests so.

Centuries after the creation myth became part of the Jewish scriptures, Jesus taught his followers to be as innocent as doves and as cunning as serpents. You have to be good at heart but keep the gun ready while dealing with others. Oh, no, don’t take that literally. Jesus wouldn’t have endorsed a real gun though he said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” It’s a metaphorical gun that is required. Shoot the cunning devils as they come. Metaphorically, of course. Be cunning enough to know how to preserve your innocence. How to preserve your paradise.

That’s not easy. It is almost impossible to preserve dove-like innocence when you are struggling with wolves and serpents. Even Jesus didn’t succeed in the struggle. He ended up on the cross crying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Loss of paradise is an inevitable fate of human beings. We all lose our individual paradises in childhood itself. There is no escape from that loss. That is the real tragedy of our species, I think.

PS. I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z 

Previous Post: Oceans are restless

Tomorrow: Que sera, sera

 

Comments

  1. Afshan ShaikApril 19, 2022 at 1:30 PM

    This post me really sad------ specially when I read last two lines -- I thought of my child growing up and inevitable loss of paradise like u told :( :( Yes at tiems it feels like clinging on to paradise but its not possible - "That’s not easy. It is almost impossible to preserve dove-like innocence when you are struggling with wolves and serpents. " --- so true! A very thought provoking post

    Dropping by from a to z "The Pensive"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 19, 2022 at 4:16 PM

      The most tragic thing is that innocence is now seen as a vice or a weakness. I wrote an earlier post on this: https://matheikal.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-idiot.html

      Delete
  2. Yamini MacLeanApril 19, 2022 at 4:10 PM

    Hari OM
    How interesting, as close to a Preachy Post as you've come! Which is just fine, for I enjoyed every word. YAM xx
    P=Psykadelika

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sonia dograApril 19, 2022 at 5:45 PM

    I was nodding a yes all along. Is being credulous a vice. A personal one, yes! And one that's almost like a loop. You never learn. Human life is a dichotomy between the credulous and the cunning, is it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 20, 2022 at 7:15 AM

      Yes is the answer to that question. The pendulum keeps swinging between those extremes. Without learning the vital lessons.

      Delete
  4. Pandian RamaiahApril 19, 2022 at 5:53 PM

    I liked the conclusion. Yet This is an eye opener //Paradise is a state of innocence. It is not a place.//

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 20, 2022 at 7:15 AM

      Let's hope some day some visionary comes to give us that innocence, at least a fraction of it, back.

      Delete
  5. SinjanaApril 20, 2022 at 10:57 AM

    Loved reading this post. It's so true - you can't remain a dove when left among the wolves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 20, 2022 at 12:01 PM

      Being a dove in such situations will be inviting ruin upon yourself.

      Delete
  6. KalpanaApril 22, 2022 at 3:31 PM

    I've loved the poem Paradise Lost for as long as I can remember. It's where I first came across the idea that Satan is a fallen angel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 22, 2022 at 7:03 PM

      And Satan is the real hero of Paradise Lost. Milton was a naughty poet!

      Delete
  7. moondustwriterApril 28, 2022 at 1:13 AM

    It's been a long time (another century) when I read Paradise Lost. The scripture you pull in is interesting. I think because it was lost - we have hope. (in Jesus) Cheers

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ivan the unusual friend

When you are down and out, you will find that people are of two types. One is the kind that will walk away from you because now you are no good. They will pretend that you don’t exist. They don’t see you even if you happen to land right in front of them. The other is the sort that will have much fun at your expense. They will crack jokes about you even to you or preach at you or pray over you. This latter people are usually pretty happy that you are broke. You make them feel more comfortable with themselves even to the point of self-righteousness. Ivan was an exception. When I slipped on the path of life and started a free fall that would last many years before I hit the bottom without a thud but with enormous anguish, Ivan stood by me for some reason of his own. He didn’t display any affection which probably he didn’t have. He didn’t display any dislike either. There was no question of preaching or praying. No jokes either. Ivan was my colleague for a brief period at St Joseph’s
14 comments
Read more

Joe the tenacious friend

AI-generated illustration You outgrow certain friendships because life changes you in ways that nobody, including you, had expected. Joe is one such friend of mine who was very dear to me once. That friendship cannot be sustained anymore because I am no more the person whom Joe knew and loved to amble along with. And Joe seems incapable of understanding the fact that people can change substantially. Joe and I were supposed to meet one of these days after a gap of more than two decades. I scuttled the meeting rather heartlessly. Just because Joe’s last messages carried words that smacked of intimacy. My life has gone through so much devastating fire that the delicate warmth of intimacy has become repulsive. Joe was a good friend of mine while we were in Shillong. He was a post-graduate student and a part-time schoolteacher when I met him first. I was a fulltime schoolteacher teaching math and science to ninth and tenth graders. My dream was to postgraduate in English literature an
11 comments
Read more

Kailasnath the Paradox

AI-generated illustration It wasn’t easy to discern whether he was a friend or merely an amused onlooker. He was my colleague at the college, though from another department. When my life had entered a slippery slope because of certain unresolved psychological problems, he didn’t choose to shun me as most others did. However, when he did condescend to join me in the college canteen sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, I wasn’t ever sure whether he was befriending me or mocking me. Kailasnath was a bundle of paradoxes. He appeared to be an alpha male, so self-assured and lord of all that he surveyed. Yet if you cared to observe deeply, you would find too many chinks in his armour. Beneath all those domineering words and gestures lay ample signs of frailty. The tall, elegantly slim and precisely erect stature would draw anyone’s attention quickly. Kailasnath was always attractively dressed though never unduly stylish. Everything about him exuded an air of chic confidence. But the wa
9 comments
Read more

Machiavelli the Reverend

Let us go today , you and I, through certain miasmic streets. Nothing will be quite clear along our way because this journey is through some delusions and illusions. You will meet people wearing holy robes and talking about morality and virtues. Some of them will claim to be god’s men and some will make taller claims. Some of them are just amorphous. Invisible. But omnipotent. You can feel their power around you. On you. Oppressing you. Stifling you. Reverend Machiavelli is one such oppressive power. You will meet Franz Kafka somewhere along the way. Joseph K’s ghost will pass by. Remember Joseph K who was arrested one fine morning for a crime that nobody knew anything about? Neither Joseph nor the men who arrest him know why Joseph K is arrested. The power that keeps Joseph K under arrest is invisible. He cannot get answers to his valid questions from the visible agents of that power. He cannot explain himself to that power. Finally, he is taken to a quarry outside the town wher
11 comments
Read more

Levin the good shepherd

AI-generated image The lost sheep and its redeemer form a pet motif in Christianity. Jesus portrayed himself as a good shepherd many times. He said that the good shepherd will leave his 99 sheep in order to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. When he finds the lost sheep, the shepherd is happier about that one sheep than about the 99, Jesus claimed. He was speaking metaphorically. The lost sheep is the sinner in Jesus’ parable. Sin is a departure from the ‘right’ way. Angels raise a toast in heaven whenever a sinner returns to the ‘right’ path [Luke 15:10]. A lot of Catholic priests I know carry some sort of a Redeemer complex in their souls. They love the sinner so much that they cannot rest until they make the angels of God run for their cups of joy. I have also been fortunate to have one such priest-friend whom I shall call Levin in this post. He has befriended me right from the year 1976 when I was a blundering adolescent and he was just one year older than me. He possesse
8 comments
Read more