Embodying Bliss

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 13 October 2022 Pahunch Gaya Hoon Uss Bulandi-E-Vajood Pe Pahunchne Ke Liye Jahan Ye Umr Kam Hai Qateel Shifai (I've reached that height of existence/ This life is inadequate to get to that point) Na Sataish Ki Tamanna, Na Sile Ki Parvaah Na Sahi Mere Asha'ar Mein Ma'ani, Na Sahi Mirza Ghalib (I'm indifferent to both praise and panning/Let my couplets be destitute of meanings) Note: Sila is actually response/feedback/reward. But I've taken slight liberty while translating this couplet. A stage comes in life, though very rarely, when nothing affects a person. It's not even enlightenment. It's beyond that. It's an awakened state of mind where there's no place for any kind of reaction. This is stoicism at its sublime best. When Mansur Al-Hallaj, the 'sacrilegious' Persian mystic, was being excoriated for proclaiming An-al-Haq (I'm the god) in 922 CE, one of the men, who was unpeeling his skin, began to tremble by the unthinkably gory sight of Mansur's raw flesh. “Must be condemning me for being so cruel to you, “asked the man. The dying Mansur faintly smiled and replied, " Rather, thankful to you for this torture. More the pain, the greater is the realization of the self......." With these words, Mansur shuffled off the mortal coil to meet his greater self. To react is the sign of still being an ordinary mortal. Equanimity and equipoise in all circumstances can lead a person in his / her spiritual quest. We react and retaliate, not because we've to prove that we're right, we resent because we're too preoccupied with ourselves, with our so-called goody-goody image in the society and with our bloated opinion of ourselves. We're too attached to this mundane world and to a quotidian existence that we can't forfeit it and try to defend our stand. We've not been able to rise above our corporeal reality and narcissistic self and that's the reason, we're so disturbed when someone says something bad about us and elated when something good we get to hear of ourselves. Apropos, readers may have observed that I never comment positively or negatively in the comments section. You condemn me, I smile and thank you. You admire (though hardly anyone does that as most of the humans are too parsimonious with praise) me, I smile again and thank you but never reveal my feelings. Allama Iqbal says, " Kafir Ki Ye Pahchan Ke Aafaaq Mein Gum Hai / Momin Ki Ye Pahchan Ke Gum Usmein Hai Aafaaq " (Kafir, not the hidebound and traditional connotation of the Hindu-Muslim stereotypes, is one who is lost in the affairs of the world, whereas a Momin, though connotationally "a true Muslim", but liberally, any awakened soul, is one in whom is lost the entire universe). The moment one gets over the self-love and self-aggrandizement, one stops bothering about whether aspersions are being cast upon him or praise is being bestowed. He becomes spiritually too insouciant to worry about all these petty issues of wretched human existence. The day before Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968, someone asked him," whether he was feeling jittery as there were threats to his life?" King calmly said, “Never in my life have I bothered about success and failure as well as life and death. Let death be lurking round the corner, why should I be frightened of something I've no control over? “King fell to the bullets of an assassin, Earl James Ray, the very next day! Self-awakening dispels all fears and it also smothers all doubts and misgivings. We react as long as we're ignorant about our entity, we stop reacting the moment we realize that any reaction is futile and self-degrading. In fact, not to react is the best reaction. An awakened soul goes beyond all trappings and is sublimated into the universal consciousness. The Sthitpragya state of eastern philosophy, advocated by Krishna in The Gita is that desired state of mind when all things appear as they're and mind neither rejoices nor does it regret when things go awry or in favour. One rises above human attributes to realize the insignificance of all that is in this world. When Jagat Mithya, Braham Satya becomes the sole dictum to follow, "reactionary and responsive pettiness" (Alfred Adler's behavioural phrase) fades into oblivion. We become universally conscious and cease to be fretful and fearful. After all, a Sthitpragya or Beneyaaz is “an embodiment of bliss." To quote Walt Whitman, “I take things in my stride/ Offering a grin bright 'n wide." Yes, grin it out, as we say in the US English, and never react. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. 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