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Dr. Jernail talks of Camus
What Greeks call the tragedy of fate
Is no different
From Shakespeare’s
Tragedies of character.
If Oedipus was victim of an evil fate
And he suffered grievously
We must remember
No suffering is unmerited.
Fate is not a blind force
Which picks its victims at will.
Fate too, like any other scientific system,
Has its working dynamics.
Man has a date with Fate
Which we believe
Is governed by gods
But our actions govern our fate.
Fate is the thick mass
Of action which piles up
As we move from
One life to another.
God only oversees this operation.
He can’t grant salvation
Even if he wants
If our actions are amiss.
It is this Fate which ruled the destinies
of Greek heroes
And the same fate worked to
The tragic end of King Lear and Macbeth.
Man is circumscribed by his actions.
Indian philosophy calls it Karma.
Lord Krishna says:
Do your duty. And never think of its consequences.
We are not only inhuman
But indivine also,
If not entirely satanic,
When we reverse the karmic paradigm.
Consequences first and then action.
We pick the thread from the wrong end
And the thread develops knots
Which no philosophy can undo.
Let us talk of Sisyphus.
Like Greek heroes,
He is condemned eternally
To move a boulder up a mountain.
Every time, the boulder slides down.
And Sisyphus,
Like a galley slave,
Pushes it above the slope.
Camus finds in Sisyphus
A prototype of the existential philosophy
That life is meaningless,
And, it is all an architecture of nothingness.
A conscientious man
Finds himself at variance with the
Ruling ethos of society,
And he must revolt and commit suicide.
Even otherwise, he is committing
A slow suicide.
Compromise is nothing but
A cultured suicide which is disgraceful as well.
Man’s dignity lies in revolt,
and an intelligent suicide,
so that his originality
is rescued from social onslaught.
How lonely is Camus’ Sisyphus.
Trapped within his self.
Absolutely isolated and finding meaning
In his self-oriented actions.
And, who has laid this trap?
Fate.
Camus too thinks
It is his destiny to be meaningless.
Let us transplant Sisyphus
Into the land of the Holy Ganges.
Let us take him to Golden Temple.
Let us recite to him the holy Gurbani.
Sisyphus, come,
Here we recite to you the Holy Gita.
Gita’s message of ‘Karma’
Spellbinds him.
He listens to the Gurus
Who say:
Jaisa beejai, so lunai,
Karma sandra khet.
What is this, I can’t grasp it.
It is an alien verse.
It means, Sisyphus, that
It is all your doing, that comes your way.
You cannot step outside
The boundaries your actions have set for yourself.
Fate is a divine decree,
But God cannot do or undo your actions and their fall out.
When with Camus, you were bound
In the circular path of birth and death,
In a hopeless situation,
From which, there is no escape.
They call Fate Fate Fate
And mean is left to curse gods
Who are out to take revenge on them.
In their furies insensate.
“As flies to wanton boys, are we to gods,
They kill us for their sport”
Who said it?
Shakespeare, Sisyphus knows it.
Yes, there are jealous gods,
Who envy man, because man
Has the power to free himself
From bondage eternal.
Gita says: It is knowledge
which can free man
from ignorance.
Your actions must be intelligent.
World is a dark sphere,
How can you think of putting your next step
At the right place?
There has to be light in your head,
Eyes see the lighted scenes only.
To look into the dark,
You need light in your head
Which comes from knowledge and contemplation.
You have to know,
And you have to focus
Your being on yourself
And the cosmos.
Sisyphus,
Have you heard of it?
Karma, enlightened by knowledge,
and super-guided by contemplation.
Christians believe in hope.
Why you think,
Life is a meaningless charade?
And why are you in despair?
God wants to see man happy.
Not in the role of a galley slave.
Life is a one-time affair.
Live and let live is all that is there.
The land of sages and saints
holds hope for you,
O Sisyphus!
There is no evil Fate.
Only control your action.
There is dust on the glass screen.
Clean it,
And you see the writing on the winds.
Love and Let Love.
Love is the holy text etched on
leaves, flowers, and on the minds of
beasts and men.
This society is your ‘Karmabhumi’
Your act-shop divine, where
People like you are needed to fight
Poverty of mind and body.
The boulder you are pushing up,
And goes down,
Is nothing but your looking back
into the past for succour.
Perhaps, you had a very good life.
But, you committed blunders
And you are paying for the same
Now, but believe me,
If you light up your head,
You will look into this darkness,
And realise that
You can forge through this dense fog.
Act for the poor, the downtrodden,
By rebound, it will help
Ease your mental alienation,
And, you will feel gaining relevance in the mass.
Yes, there is hope for you.
There is hope for man.
Never think it is body, or mind, or soul.
We miss divinity by picking only on one.
The occident and the orient,
are complementary,
for body and mind fall too short
for a life well lived.
What a man finally needs, Sisyphus?
Not success, my dear.
He needs fulfillment,
Which comes from duties well performed.
In family, in society, and in the world,
Can we exist by ourselves?
Don’t we need the air, the water,
Which we can neither grow nor purchase?
The earth has its forests,
Its four-legged empire,
and its winged ambassadors,
We are not alone to boss over this earth.
Leave your ivory tower.
West has no existence without East.
Body is meaningless without a mind,
And both are dangerous in the absence of soul.
You are welcome to Varanasi.
You are welcome to Kumbh.
You are welcome to Amritsar.
You are welcome to Taj.
Camus found it all absurd.
Thanks to him.
There is life beyond the absurd.
And it is here. The East.
©Dr. Jernail S. Anand
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