Existential Individual (Quest for Self-Part III)

By Divas

(In this Chapter Divas shows how a perpetrating regime misrepresents a philosopher (like Divas ). Divas proves that one of the most influential thinkers of Modern History Nietzche’s Superman was falsely represented by the Nazi regime as an excuse for the Holocaust. Divas also makes it clear what Nietzche really meant by his symbol of Übermensch – the Superman. )

Although it’s difficult to give a precise definition, existentialism can be seen as the analysis of human situation with the individual at the center of all phenomena. Thus, existentialism may be called the philosophy of the individual. Existential analyses of human individual are found in the works of early literary writers and philosophers as well. Thomas Flynn claims that even Socrates (469–399 BC) can be called an existential philosopher for the latter’s practice of philosophy as “‘care of the self’ (epimeleia heautou)” (1).

Buddha has also been considered to be one of the early existential philosophers since he refused to discuss God and held the individual himself responsible for all the consequences. Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) found fault with his times for ignoring the individual self with, “Each age has its characteristic depravity. Ours is perhaps not pleasure or indulgence or sensuality, but rather a dissolute pantheistic contempt for individual man” (qtd. in Stokes 145).

The Russian writer and thinker Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81) whose works dramatize religious, moral, political and psychological issues is considered as an early existential novelist who portrayed his characters as anguished individuals struggling for their distinctive space in a harsh and hostile society. Hesse (1877-1962), too, who grew up during the last decades of the 19th century, is supposed to have been immensely influenced by his predecessors like Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche who were later identified as the forerunners of the existential movement.

Dostoevsky’s characters are involved in endless dilemma between right and wrong, good and evil and desperately struggle to free themselves from all societal bondage in quest of their own self. Coupled with his fine psychological insights into the anxieties and moral problems of the characters, Dostoevsky makes the existential point that human individuals can get salvation only by braving the intense suffering that life offers. Hesse seems to be very much influenced by Dostoevsky’s idea of salvation through suffering as Hesse himself makes all his characters including Siddhartha to go through intensely painful self-searching.

Both Dostoevsky and Hesse were anxious at Europe’s political, social and moral disintegration during their times. In his analysis of Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov, Hesse reveals his admiration for the Russian novelist with, “It seems to me that European and especially German youth are destined to find their greatest writer in Dostoevsky–not in Goethe, not even in Nietzsche” (qtd. in Weber 248). Both writers believed that only a completely different kind of spiritual awareness was able to unite Europe emotionally once again. Two years before Siddhartha’s publication, Hesse wrote a review on Dostoevsky’s another novel The Idiot prophesizing, “The future is uncertain, but the road which he [Dostoevsky] shows can have but one meaning. It means a new spiritual dispensation” (qtd. in Girardot 303).While salvation was still a Christian idea for Dostoevsky, for Hesse, as Siddhartha shows, the new spiritual awakening was to come from Asia.

Another existentialist thinker, Nietzsche, who was to influence not only Hesse but generations of his posteriors called for a new species of human beings who could survive the God-less world. According to Stokes, Nietzsche wanted the individual to acquire, “what the existentialists would later give him, the power to be master of his own destiny” (147). In his allegorical work, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche makes his Zarathustra to proclaim that “Dead are all the gods: now do we desire the Superman to live” (51).

Nietzsche was indicating that the traditional theological systems and their morality concepts which centered on the idea of all-powerful God would no longer hold validity in the new world. Nietzsche’s Superman survives life’s miseries and profound unhappiness through his will to power and affirms life joyously by going beyond the traditional boundaries of good and evil.

However, that Nietzsche opposed the Judeo-Christian worldview does not mean that he was anti-Semitic in his opinion. On the contrary, Nietzsche was outraged the way his prophet Zarathustra was maliciously misrepresented as the messiah of the anti-Semitic ideology. Nietzsche, in a letter, repudiates his sister for associating his works with the anti-Semitic propaganda:

“You have committed one of the greatest stupidities – for yourself and for me! Your association with an anti-Semitic chief expresses foreignness to my whole way of life which fills me ever again and again with ire or melancholy . . .  It is a matter of honor to me to be absolutely clean and unequivocal in relation to anti-Semitism, namely opposed, as I am in my writings . . . that in every Anti-Semitic Correspondence Sheet the name of Zarathustra is used, has already made me almost sick several times” (qtd. in Schacht 217).

Even during the World War I, the German government published Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and distributed to every soldier along with the Bible as a source of inspiration. Nietzsche’s call for a superhuman character antagonistic to the Judeo-Christian worldview also inspired such deadly historic figures as Hitler and Mussolini.

The anti-Semitic Nazis propagandists collected Nietzsche’s works, manipulated and assembled them in such a way that the juxtaposition “wrongly gained the reputation of supporting Nazism, though his concept of the Übermensch or ‘superman’, is in fact closer to Aristotle’s man of virtue than the glorified Aryan hero” (Stokes 146).

Hesse himself was influenced by Nietzsche’s idea of equipping the individual with a magnificent “will to power” so that the individual could transcend his self and create the personal archetype of Übermensch – the Superman. However, Hesse was concerned over the way Nietzsche was being interpreted by the Nazi regime to brainwash German youths into racial war. Hesse published Zarathustra’s Return in 1919, just three years before Siddhartha. Zarathustra’s Return was Hesse’s own interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophy.  Zarathustra’s Return was written in the Nietschzean idiom to appeal to the youths who were influenced by Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and were manipulated by the German State. Hesse made his Zarathustra to “reject German false gods, Kaiser, and the drill sergeant” (Galbreath 68) to awaken the hidden God residing within each individual. Hesse makes the protagonist of his Bildungsroman Siddhartha achieve the Nietschzean Superman status by rebelling against all Gods, prophets, and doctrines and asserting his individuality by following his own self.

Divas’ Birthday Gift For Barack Obama

By Divas

Guys, i used to think that only Nepali politicians beg with others…but no, i was mistaken. Barack Obama has pleaded me to donate at least $ 3 to support his presidential campaign. He’s also asked me to join his birthday get-together. Hahaha…poor Obama gets 51 this year. Take care of your back, Barack. You’ve already spent half your life, dude!

However, i’m a little miser. Therefore, i’m not going to part with my hard earned bucks for Obama. And owing to my busy schedule, i’d also not be able to attend your birthday get-together. So sorry Barack, i know you gonna miss me a lot.

But, hey Barack, i couldn’t like your support for homosexuality. Of course, our LGBT campaigner Sunil Babu Pant loves you for your support. Be careful, when you ever come to Nepal…hahaha. Well, i don’t mind if your support is only for male homosexuality, coz i know your nature. But, i’m utterly against lesbianism. That reduces my chances.

Still, i like this new kid in the White House. Therefore, i’m posting his donation link on my international blog free of cost as a birthday gift to Obama. Believe me, it’s worth a lot more than any monetary donation. This is my contribution for Obama’s Presidential Campaign.

But hey Michelle, my contribution is less for Barack and more for you. I like the way you keep yourself so fit and gorgeous. I want to see Michelle as a First Lady for one more term. And i like the way you love each other. At least in public. You guys are really a gorgeous couple. But hey Michelle, keep an eye on Barack, he supports homosexuality…hahaha… Hey Romney, watch out…now Obama gets my support!

Btw, i hope Barack and Michelle Obamas would stop spamming me after my this contribution.

Here’s Obama’s plea to me:

Hey Divas –

My upcoming birthday next week could be the last one I celebrate as President of the United States, but that’s not up to me — it’s up to you.

This July deadline is our most urgent yet, coming after two consecutive months of being significantly outraised by Romney and the Republicans.

And if you pitch in $3 or whatever you can before midnight tonight, you and a guest will be automatically entered to join me at my birthday get-together next month:

https://donate.barackobama.com/My-Birthday

Thanks. Hope I’ll see you soon.

- Barack

Why I’m not a Politician

Poor Politicans: Do you see anyone happy? 

By Divas

Often people suggest me to join politics. They say: you’ve all the ingredients of becoming a successful politician. But who wants to be a politician?

But i’m already in politics…rather say in the political process. In the sense that i influence the political process. I influence not only the national politics, but i also influence the regional and international politics.

Still, politics is not my profession. I influence not only politics, but all spheres of human endeavor. It’s also true that i’ve my friends in all political institutions. In fact, even right now, i’m working with people who seem to hold different political ideologies. But, i don’t find any difficulty in working with them. Coz, i see that their difference is only superficial. In essence, they all are the same. They’re humans.

The main reason why i’m not a politician is that i sleep ten hours everyday. And i don’t want to lose a single moment of my sleep in meaningless meetings. In fact, i pity the politicians. Look at them. They seem to be powerful. They’ve been to abroad – to Europe and America at the expense of taxpayers money. They’ve committed all sorts of crimes and corruptions. But, do they look happy?

Everyone uses them when they’re in power. And everyone curses them when something goes wrong. Every day you’d see a long line of beggars at the politicians doors. They’ve to make compromises with all sorts of people. And I don’t want to see a long line of beggars at my door. I don’t want to listen to their endless complaints. In fact, i’m not interested in others at all.

My only aim is to enjoy my life without harming others, to discover, to learn, to understand, to grow, and to influence the world positively.

This is How I Change the Whole World

By Divas

A friend I met on the road commented: Man, you left everything behind, but you look even happier. I replied: I am happier precisely becoz I left everything behind. Now, the whole world in open for me.

When i say that material things do not make you happy, people say that i’m just preaching. But no. I prove every point i preach. Look at me. Everyone says that i look happier than before. And they find it strange. Coz, i’ve left behind all material possessions. But what they don’t see is that i’m happier than before precisely coz i left behind all material possessions. I do not have anything now, but i’m far happier than before. And you can see it. I’m not making any excuses or false claims. You can see it in my eyes, in my face, in my expressions, and in my total being.

And there’s a reason. With the material possessions, i also left behind all the tensions that come with possessions. Since i do not possess anything now, i also do not possess any tension. I do not also feel any responsibility. I’ve refused to live by any fucking social norms. And i was never this much carefree in my life before.

When dad’s house was complete and it was time to shift i told him that from now on i’m not going to live with the society anymore. That I’d live alone by myself. Dad was dumbfounded. ‘You’re a fool’, he said. ‘Can you live alone?’ he asked. Dad said, ‘After your mom’s death, I’d also tried to live alone. But I couldn’t do it. It’s impossible.’ But Dad didn’t know that how far his son has gone.

I told him, ‘You read Gita every day. Don’t you know what Krishna said? That everything is just a Maya. That everything is Illusion.’ Then Dad said, ‘You’re right. Now that i’ve grown old, i can also say that everything is illusion. If you think you will be happy by living alone, i won’t stop you. But still i’m your father. I feel concerned.’

All dads are like that. They see you only as their sperms…as their possessions. Nature compels them to make it sure that their sperms survive. And that’s why i say that although dad’s nearing his 70′s, he never learned how to live a good life. One day he said, ‘Life’s difficult.’ Often i get so angry with dad’s foolishness that i feel like beating him. But then when i see his worrying face, i feel pity for him. He could never get out of Maya Moha Jaal or the illusions of Maya.  He really never learned how to live a good life.

Then one day my brother came to my room. He looked around and said, ‘You’re living in such a poor condition? Come to your own house, you don’t know what you’re missing.’ Dad had put his house on brother’s name. Coz like many other people, dad also thinks that i’m a little crazy. And this is a Kaliyuga. And, as the scriptures say, in Kaliyuga, whoever wears the Gold Crown on his head, he gets intoxicated. Such is the nature of the Gold.

But still he’s my only brother. And i’m his only brother. Once he suggested me, ‘You write interesting memoirs. And you’ve very faithful company of friends since your college days. Write memoirs about your college days & friends’. But he may not have imagined that i was going to write a memoir related to him. When i decided that i won’t live with them anymore, he felt sorry and he was hurt. He was even angry at my decision. ‘You’re too much self-centered’ he texted me. But, although my brother is only two years junior to me, i still see him as a kid. What he doesn’t know that by living alone, i’m challenging the whole social system. I’ll never compromise with the society. And if i’m right, I’ll win. And i’m winning. Even my one relative admitted to me recently, ‘Ok, i admit you win’.

One day, my brother texted me, ‘I’m going to marry. Can you help me?’ I called him to my office. ‘You look like a majdoor, a menial worker. Your hair has also grown long’ he expressed his sympathies. Then he said,  ‘Apun Shaadi karne jaa raha hai, suit nahi silwayega? (I’m getting married, won’t you get a suit for yourself?). I could see on his face that within two months that I’d started living by myself, he’d begun missing me. Society is like that. Society is just a fucking trap. And since he was going to marry, i felt pity for him even more. ‘Kaise log jaan boojhkar khud ko gaddhe me daal lete hai’ (‘I’m amused to see how people knowingly put themselves in trouble.’), I teased him. He said, ‘Life’s like that. No matter what you do, there’ll always be some difficulty in life.’

But, after his marriage, when he came to my room with his wife, i was suddenly happy to see them together. And l laughed. She’s a nice girl. But since she’s a newly married girl, she’s also a little insecure. And society might have cautioned her about me like: He’s your Jethaju, Brother-in-law, be careful of his intentions, & blah, blah, blah. After marriage, my brother texted me, ‘I took the right decision by marrying her. She’s such a kind of girl. Marrying is really healing’. I was also happy to see them happy. Moreover, now i was also free even more. Now the society won’t say that your brother couldn’t marry coz you’re not marrying. But, still, i cannot help thinking how long would they be happy in this fucking society?

One day, he said to me, ‘Look Divas, now we’re already in our 30′s…and we’re not growing emotionally’. I think, it was our mom who made us emotionally too much attached. However, the day arrived when i grew up emotionally…and i grew up so well that i grew out of all worldly attachments. I grew out of all Maya Moha Jaal. Some people say that i started living alone because of my personal differences with dad & brother. However, they’re wrong. That i’m living alone means that I’m challenging the whole society. Once my one cousin asked me, ‘You’re so defiant. Don’t you need society?’ Here’s my answer: No, i don’t need society.

And now, the society is jealous of me. Becoz it could not trap me in its snare. Every time society tries to trap me, i dodge it…hahaha…. And now, i want to prove that i can live alone by myself. And still, i’m happier than before. I never feel lonely or bored. And i do whatever i want. Moreover, i’m also not going to run away from society. I’m not an escapist. I will be in this world, and i WILL change it, and yet i’ll not be in this world. Got it? This is what my friend Buddha meant when he gave the symbol of lotus flower – remaining in the water and yet not allowing the water to touch you; remain in the mud, and yet transcend the mud so that it cannot pollute you. This is how i challenge the whole world. I won’t do anything. I’d just sit and let the Karma do everything. And like my that relative, one day the society will be compelled to say to me, ‘Yes Divas, we admit, you win, we lose’.

So this is my challenge to the whole world: I WILL change you. Can you dare to fight with me? heeheeheehee..hohohoho…haahaahaahaa….

Another Hike to a Kathmandu Hill on a Rainy Day

Last weekend, i thought of hiking a ‘virgin’ hill… got off from the bus, and started hiking uphill…i even don’t know the name of this place…but that gives you a sense of discovery

The climb now gets wilder…

Since it’s the rainy season, the most annoying part of the climb are these fucking leeches…well, i don’t mind donating a few pints of my blood to these creatures, but i get auto-immune reaction for some days after the leech-bite…the foot swells and the wound itches a lot…

i’d call it a Mushroom Hike…coz you see various types of mushroom everywhere…i think, this is the largest mushroom i saw…does anyone know it’s name?

And is it a mushroom or a lichen? i wish, i hadn’t bunked H. D. Ranjitkar Mam’s Botany classes…

eureka! looks like i discovered a new species of mushroom…it looks poisonous…i’d call it Cluster Mushroom…coz it looks like Cluster Bombs…

And what do you see here? hahaha….You dirty mind…i was showing you some fern species, and you noticed the mating insects instead…well, these insects are called Jhyaukiri in Nepali…but i don’t know what they’re called in your language…These Jhyaukiri make annoying noises when you’re walking into the jungle…and they won’t allow you to get this close…i was lucky to take their photo coz they’re in their orgasmic bliss…

Boy, never saw such a tiny mushroom species…

a movement? what could it be? a jackal or a leopard? anyway, why fear? what could be more dangerous than me, a human?

And this is the top of the Hill…every time i’m into the wild, i ask myself, “Will i get back again?” And since i didn’t know this location, i was even more exposed…but even when you’re walking on the road with hundreds of other people, is there any guarantee that you’d get back to your room in the evening? The joy of life lies not in seeking safety, but in living dangerously…

Climbing a Hill is like possessing a girlfriend….once you possess a Hill, the next one looks  prettier than that you possess…

Divas Baba: Note the Rudrakshya Mala…part of my drama to fool people…Some people have started calling me a ‘Jogi’…but they don’t know  how ‘Bhogi’ i am…it’s so fun to dupe people, especially when they try to play clever with you…hahaha

hahaha…The downhill path is slippery, and Divas Baba slips…

What is this flower called? Wild Orchid? Oh…i really miss my Taxonomy classes…

Wow Marijuana…a sign that you’re approaching civilization…

Never saw a horse and a cow grazing together before….so Divas Baba survives yet another excursion into the wild…

India: Parties, People, Unions and Regime: The Game Interplay!

By DR. ABDUL RUFF

___________________

Strikes those days were organized for a better life of common people. These days, strikes in India are being muted by the regime by colluding with union leaders. As a result, strikes do not make any difference to the existing situations. Strikes make the life of people more miserable while the regime, power brokers and its agents continue to enjoy the fruit all by themselves. Strikers and people lose  most and achieve nothing. Prices are rising almost on a permanent basis and at an exorbitant rate and speed. None really bothers about sky rocketing of prices. During the last 5 years of Congress rule prices of essential commodities have  multiplied almost 300 percent.

Millions of workers took part in a nationwide general strike against price hikes, privatization and the contract work system. In May, there was a general shut down and protests by workers, youth, the rural poor and small businessmen against fuel price hikes.  But strikes produced no real results.

The strike at Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) in the southern state of Tamil State (Nadu) was one of a series of bitter struggles by workers in India in recent years. The communist betrayal of the 44-day strike by 14,000 contract workers at the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, owned by the Indian central government, has vital political lessons for the workers movement throughout world. The left oriented AITUC on June 3 “closed” the strike, without meeting any of the workers’ demands, which included equal pay with permanent workers and “regularization” of their employment.

The striking workers defied the return call order by the union to work for several days. Hundreds protested outside the local AITUC office in Neyveli and on the following day ransacked the union premises. But lacking an alternative political perspective and leadership, they were unable to sustain their rebellion. The state and owners take advantage of this phenomenon.

NLC workers maintained their strike and challenged the contract system, which is employed in public and private enterprises throughout India for the extraction of super profits.  State political charade against the strickers has a tendency to win. Political alliances between the ruling parties and affiliating union parties have made things easy for the state to defeat the strikes. . .

The central and TN state governments are instrumental in defeating the demands of the strikers and they have used the union leaders as a key tool to defeat the strike. Union leaders deliberately blocked any political fight against the state and central governments. Trade unionists have sold the movement to the state perhaps son some “usual” return favors. The AITUC and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, did everything possible to isolate the strikers.

In India, that means above all drawing the necessary political conclusions from the long history of betrayals of the communists who play a role assigned by the regime. Earlier, the CPI and CPM falsely claimed to be communist and socialist and to represent the heritage of the October 1917 Russian Revolution to work for the welfare of poor and workers. They are now completely integrated into the Indian political establishment and openly defend bourgeois rule. As a result, people have rejected their premises of defending poor and the communist parties have lost the state governments it ruled for years, West Bengal and Kerala. West Bengal Bengalis have shown they have nothing to do with Indian brand communism and have opted for Mamata Banergi as their leader. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the communist to get back to reign there.

Communists, fearing aggressive nature of Hindutva BJP outfits, now promote Congress party interests and people in Kerala and West Bengal where the communists face Congress party see this as communist betrayal of popular faith.

 Communism is now part of Indian politics – nothing more for people.  Communist parties consider themselves as part of rung elite. As state rulers the CPM-led communists promoted pro-market restructuring and privatization, governments have implemented anti-working class policies for the benefit of foreign and local investors.

Leftists and communists now worry too much about India’s national interest for promoting corporatists, multinationals and the rich and their concern o fro people has been reduced to supporting the corrupt regime. The regime misuses both communists and communalists to promote its corruption ridden  reign.

Corruption, under the prevailing circumstances,  cannot be wiped out of India so long as the corrupt parties like congress continue to rule.  When judiciary is weak, one doubts if any party can help India, occupying neighboring Jammu Kashmir, becoming a really corruption-free nation to provide people’s welfare measures, by withstanding pressure tactics of the rich and multinationals that control Indian Parliament and assemblies by its paid lobbyists. . . .

With communist parties losing their importance in India now, there is a greater need for a pro-people party both at central and state levels to help people – the weak, deprived, injured and insulted. A new crop of selfless leaders is the need of the hour and Anna team could have expanded their mandate to help India become a real people’s democracy! But the problem is  each member has other affiliations with which the regime maintains the nexus and control. Nothing comes out!

When the union leaders strike secret deals with the regime, the not only people’s lives but even their hopes fall a helpless victim to such political manipulations. All parties coordinate their anti-people polices and  inflationary practices and jointly vitiate the  societal atmosphere.

A mischievous regime and hopeless people.  Polls after polls people continue to suffer, bearing the brunt of regime mischief.

Does Communication Communicate?

An MBA student asked me to fill up a set of questionnaire some days ago for her  research paper. I forgot the exact title, but i think it was related to the role of communication in the workplace. It was an interesting topic for me. There was a question in which i was asked to put my views. I wrote: I wish people were less emotional and more professional.

People have been complaining that i do not communicate with them easily. Not only my relatives, but even my colleagues these days say that i do not communicate well with them.

Well, there was a time when i also used to believe in communication. I used to be so much interested in making interaction that people used to say that i speak a lot. Even my teachers used to say: You speak the truth. But such truths are dangerous. Slowly, i discovered that it’s useless trying to communicate your point of view. I discovered that while trying to communicate their views, people misunderstand each other even more. Therefore, these days, i often say that communication never communicates, and most often it miscommunicates.

Hence, these days i do not feel like communicating as far as possible. I’ve even stopped greeting people whom i meet everyday. What’s the point in saying ‘Good Morning’,  ‘Good Day’ & blah, blah, blah everyday? Even while blogging, I’m not trying to communicate anything. I’m just expressing myself. For me, blogging is  like writing a diary .

Rajesh Khanna died yesterday

Baboo Moshay: Kuch To Log Kahenge….People wud say something anyway

By Divas

Rajesh Khanna died yesterday. I’m neither shocked nor surprised. Still, it feels like a lil strange. the news of his death brought back many old memories. Rajesh used to be my mom’s favorite hero. When i was a kid, most of the Bollywood lovers were divided into two camps: Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna. My mom was Rajesh Khanna’s supporter. In her college days, my mom used to be a Dev Anand fan. But that was before i was born. I did not like Dev Anand in my childhood, he looked like a monkey to me. Perhaps, that’s coz Dev Anand was more popular for his romances, and i didn’t like romances in my childhood.

I was also not in favor of Rajesh Khanna. I was Amitabh Bachhan’s fan, coz in those days i used to love action movies. And Amitabh used to be the favorite Angry Youngman of all Bollywood watchers. However, as i grew up, i began admiring Dev Anand and Rajesh Khanna more…for the characters they played. Coz i began taking interest in romances and character. I hugely enjoyed watching Rajesh Khanna’s Amar Prem, Shahrukh Khan’s Devdaas, and Dev Aanand’s ‘Guide’ a few years ago.

I think Ananda & Amar Prem are perhaps Rajesh Khanna’s finest movies i’ve watched. Anyone who enjoys Bollywood movies, would hardly have missed Rajesh Khanna’s famous dialogue to Sharmila Tagore, “Yeh, Aasoo Puchh Dalo..I hate tears”. So many times I have gotten emotional watching Rajesh Khanna’s characters.  And when some people say that Divas will become a ‘Jogi’ or ‘Sadhu’ some day, i’m reminded of Dev Anand’s one dialogue from Guide: Log Mar Mar Kar Sadhu Bana Dete hai (People thrash you up so hard that you become a Sadhu).

I do not watch movies these days. I do not even recognize today’s Bollywood hero or heroines. When i’d just passed my S.L.C., Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dxit were popular Bollywood stars. Then came Shahrukh Khan. However, i watched some Bollywood movies a few years ago when my former employers went out of business and therefore i was free to watch movies. I enjoyed watching Mughal-e-Azam, Pakiza, Three Idiots, and My Name is Khan. I watched Mughal-e-Azam, Pakiza and Three Idiots many times. I consider Mughal-e-Azam the best Hindi film of all times. I also hugely enjoyed Three Idiots.

Pakiza used to my mom’s favorite film. Once, i followed my mom to the nearby Video Hall where she was watching Pakiza with her friends. But, as a kid nearing his teens, i was so bored with Pakiza that i could not continue watching it and got out of the hall. In those days, i did not like anything except Amitabh Bachchan and his fights. I watched Pakiza once again coz Pakiza’s heroine Mina Kumari used to be not only my mom’s, but even our grandmom’s favorite actor.

Our grandma used to run away from home secretly to watch Mina Kumari’s movies. She was a very loving grandma. After her daughter’s & our mom’s death, our grandma used to be very protective of us. She used to give me all her money that her sons gave her personal expenses. I watched Pakiza also coz i’d started enjoying Mujras. Thus, Bollywood and especially its old actors & singers have their influences in our personal lives as well…for the fond memories they bring back.

Individual and Religion (Quest for Self-III)

By Divas

(In this chapter, Divas contends that spirituality and  religious dogmatism are  two different and often contradictory approaches to life.)

All religions preach for the individual’s personal endeavor to free his self from life’s miseries, and still every religion binds the individual in its faith. All religions have their respective gods judging every human activity, and every person will either deserve the heaven or the hell depending upon their conduct in relation to the religion of their faith. The fatal consequences of religious and ethnic conflicts in the increasingly multicultural world have encouraged people to search for an individual spirituality free from religious fanaticism. It has been felt necessary to differentiate between the organized religions and spirituality. Spirituality is increasingly being seen as compassion, tolerance and understanding and contrasted with religious collectivism.

Hesse himself was born and brought up as a Pietistic Protestant. However, he does not associate the term Protestant to any particular variety of Christian faith, but as an individual’s resistance against institutionalized religious dogmas. In an autobiography written in 1925, Hesse recalls how the religions were used to perpetuate the war, “even so-called spiritual people could find nothing better to do than preach hatred, spread lies, and praise the great misfortune” (Michels 13). The hazards of religions’ control over the individual are also being felt in the 21st century world affairs in the form of religious extremism. Eric Hill justifies the reason behind adapting the dramatic version of Hesse’s Siddhartha at the Berkshire Theater Festival in 2004 as to protect the humankind from those who cling to, “gods and guns as a way of protecting religion from threats real and perceived”. Thus, the hazards of extremism in the name of religions have made the thinkers to refute that spirituality is necessarily a religious domain. Even Hesse’s contemporary and Austrian born philosopher cum scientist Rudolf Steiner founded a spiritual movement he named “anthroposophy” which was a philosophic and spiritual doctrine centered not on the gods but on the human beings.

However, as early as in the 6th century BC, Buddha had refuted the prevailing religious view that belief in some form of superior deity or the god was necessary for one’s enlightenment. He also rendered unnecessary all the rituals promoted by the then prevailing religion, Hinduism. Buddha rejected all prevailing doctrines and claimed that depending upon God’s mercy puts hindrance to an individual’s efforts on earning his own salvation. He also prohibited all philosophical discussions regarding the existence of god, afterlife, or Atman and insisted that the individual should discipline his mind through right conduct, right speech and right effort. Replying to a query by his disciple, Buddha once put forward his logic, “I haven’t taught the world is eternal or not, that it is finite or not, that the breath and the body are identical or not nor that a person after death will pass to future existence, or not, or both, or neither. . . Simply because these issues are pointless, unprofitable and a waste of time” (Kanekar 280).

Thus, Buddhism is also sometimes described not as a religion but as a spiritual method focusing on the individual’s quest for personal self. Hesse appreciates Buddha’s way in his lecture on Siddhartha, “Buddha’s way to salvation has often been criticized and doubted, because it is thought to be wholly grounded in cognition. True, but it’s not just intellectual cognition, not just learning and knowing, but spiritual experience that can be earned only through strict discipline in a selfless life” (qtd. in Freedman 233). However, the irony with Buddhism is that Buddha himself is worshipped as a God by most of his followers with no less ritualistic and no less dogmatic than what Buddha had accused of Hinduism. Hindus, too, worship the Buddha as one of their eight avatars.

Such tendency of deification of the individual achievement and humanization of the supernatural God exists even during the post-modern era when religions have been on their defensive side. The God theory has not lost its charm even while humanizing the God as, “His qualities are human virtues, raised to the nth degree. His interest in man remains even when, as in modern Barthian theology, he is described as the ‘wholly other’” (Niebuhr 34).

After the European Enlightenment period, perhaps Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was the first philosopher who contemplated upon discovering one’s true self without necessarily believing in any religious system or the Gods. Schopenhauer thought life for the individual as an unavoidable suffering. For Schopenhauer, all the experienced activity of the self is will and the ultimate reality is one universal will. In his discussion of the nature and scope of subjective element of aesthetic pleasure, Schopenhauer hopes for, “the deliverance of knowledge from the service of the will, the forgetting of self as an individual, and the raising of the consciousness to the pure will-less, timeless, subject of knowledge, independent of all relations” (498). Thus, Schopenhauer advocates for the anguished individual to seek for deliverance from life’s sufferings through artistic, moral and ascetic forms of awareness. Schopenhauer’s idea that the world is not factual but mere projections of our mind not only echo with Hindu and Buddhist vision of life, but as Baumann claims even his salvation philosophy “ . . . corresponds to the traditional ‘Tat tvam asi’ of the Upanishads and the Buddhist idea of salvation by overcoming ‘Thirst’ and egocentricity”.

Schopenhauer influenced many literary and philosophical figures including Nietzsche and Hesse. Hesse even sets the story of Siddhartha in Buddha’s time and makes Siddhartha the Brahmin boy hold a discussion with the Buddha. Hence, Siddhartha has also been considered as a mythical narrative based on Buddha’s early life. However, contrary to popular misconception, Siddhartha is not Buddha’s biographical story. Hesse’s Siddhartha who is awed by Buddha’s persona and yet denies taking refuge in Buddha’s Dhamma has a correlation with Hesse’s own initial admiration of the Buddha and later disenchantment with Buddhism’s too rationalistic generalization. While writing Siddhartha, Hesse seems to be influenced not only by Hindu and Buddhist views on life, but also by the religious philosophies of ancient China, such as Taoism. Hesse’s biographer Mark Boulby claims that Siddhartha is an amalgam of Vedanta and Tao philosophies with, the Indian-Hindu “letting oneself fall into life (tyaga)” and the Chinese-Taoistic “enlightened passiveness (wuwei)” (143).

In his autobiography for the Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Hesse discloses the reason why he could not accept the religion of Christian Pietism he was born into was because of its aim of, “subduing and breaking the individual personality” (Gale 349). And yet, his opposition to the institutionalized religions’ suppression of the individual self seems to contradict with his observation in a 1930 essay, “I myself consider the religious impulse as the decisive characteristic of my life and my work” (qtd. in Ziolkowski 106). The contradiction can be understood if one appreciates that Hesse’s “religious impulse” suggests an approach of consciously choosing one’s own way of life. If any religion that Hesse believed in it was humanism, as Zipes writes in his evaluation of the influence of fairy tales in Hesse’s works, “If there ever was a creed that he [Hesse] devoutly followed, it was the German romantic Novalis’s notion that ‘Mensch werden ist eine Kunst’- to become a human being is art” (241).

Thus, Hesse attempts to establish the significance of the individual’s personal quest for self through the interaction with diverse religions. Hesse proposes his own version of spirituality that dissolves the dichotomy of opposite pairs both within the individual and outside in the world, “For me, although brought up a Protestant Christian but then later educated in India and China, there do not exist all these twofold divisions of world and men into opposite pairs. For me, the first dogma is the unity behind and above the opposites” (qtd. in Herzog). Hesse’s interest in finding unity behind opposites can also be seen in Siddhartha, in which the protagonist appreciates religion as a method for self-realization and yet refuses to accept any religious doctrine insisting upon finding the unity behind all opposites through his own search for self.

An Encounter with a Crazy Woman in Kathmandu

Crazy Woman in Kathmandu: Much Madness is Divinest Sense 

By Divas

i often meet a woman on my way to office…people call her a crazy woman…coz she makes political speeches on the road…but she makes a competent historical commentary on Nepal’s socio-political affairs… If you’re from Thamel area, then you must know her…she’s your neighbor…there you see her in the picture above wearing a red salwar kurta…

Every time she begins her speech with the opening sentence, “i’m a Magar’s daughter, a descendant of Nepal’s first martyr Lakhan Thapa Magar”…then she goes on elucidating how India has been historically manipulating Nepal’s political and social groups…

Today i listened to her for about ten minutes, and said, “yes, you’re right”…and i continued my journey…however, she came running after me yelling, “hey man, stop…stop”. I stopped to listen to her, coz i respect the people whom the world calls crazy and listen to them carefully. I’ve found that ‘crazy’ people are more honest than the so-called ‘normal’ people.

She said to me, “I’m a mother of five kids, three girls and two boys. Will you marry me?” And she gave a big laugh. She’s about my age, but i saw that both her canines were missing and she didn’t enjoy brushing her teeth. Boy, now i was really scared. I enjoy startling people with strange remarks. But this woman seemed to be my Guru.

But, i recovered soon, and replied, “No, I won’t marry you. I’ll never marry.” Now she was angry with me. “If you won’t marry me, then why did you meddle in my speech?” she asked. I said, “But, i thought you were right.” Then she said, “Yesterday I saw your mom with a man who is not your father.” Boy, now she was sounding really like a ‘normal’ person.

Perhaps she wanted to quarrel with me, and therefore she was expecting me to be angry. But, instead, i laughed. Now, it was her turn to be startled. “Why are you laughing?” she asked. I said, “That’s impossible. My mom died long ago when i was still a youngster.”

The so-called ‘normal’ people say that ‘crazy’ people don’t have a sense of reality. But, this woman also proved my one observation that ‘crazy’ people are often more humane than the ‘normal’ people. When i told her that my mom died when i was still a youngster, she felt sorry for me…and she said, “Oh, i’m sorry. My mom also died long ago. You may go to your office now. But don’t meddle in my speech again.” Then she went back to her place and continued her speech.

Btw, if you’re feeling pity for me after learning that my mom died when i was still a youngster, please take back your pity with yourself. I’m a very cruel guy, & it’s useless to pity on me. I mentioned it on the blog coz the plot wanted it.