Painting by Salvador Dali
For ages, the glory of a period has been interpreted in terms of its growth in art and literature. However now, we could see the glory and prosperity is all about the technological advancements.That we tend to incline towards strategical solutions, creativity or innovation is no more a leap. In my previous post, ‘God, the magic word’, I wrote up that ‘There is an unfathomable magic associated with the leap in faith and the logic would take away this magic from it‘. This to be looked up more from an emotional standpoint, the magic lies in leap, the mystery, the unknown, is like the inexplicable emotion that lies in the yen for the un-uttered words of love. For a logical argument, there would be a satisfaction out of it, but would take away the innocence and mystery with it. Logic is sort of bound by the inadequacies of our brain, imposes a limit to our purview, does not let our imagination run wild. The more we reason, the more we know, our thoughts are confined, narrowed and no more freedom from the known. Reasoning may help us jump puddles yet we need belief when we have oceans to leap.
A couple of days ago, I was surfing the net and ran into this – ‘For every philosopher there is always an equal and opposite philosopher’, first law of philosophy, very much alike Newton’s third law of motion. The site had many contradictory yet equally satisfying views of illustrious philosophers from different ages, from Plato to Rene Descartes and their arguments on body and soul. Later that day, I was sitting on the terrace, trying to cerebrate a bit and my thoughts went diving into the deep blue, as some beautiful fireworks colored the night sky. We do know the science behind the fireworks, don’t we? Yet our heart leaps high with it, our eyes reflect their twinkle, our mood drifts back to our childhood fantasies. I could sense the equal and opposite argument dawning in me, I could sense my fascination for the fireworks overtaking the science and logic behind it, contradicting my former thoughts.
Hard for me to accept, but ‘how’ was the real question, Isn’t it? How could one get carried away by despite knowing how it works. The very next morning, another random surf, and Salvador Dali’s painting was staring at me, nailing in the answer. Two opposite propositions could be true at a time given the difference in perception! It’s not the science or the logic that takes away the magic, but our perception does!
‘Perception’ is quite mystic and so much tangled with the belief, that we do not know where its causal efficacy lies – as in, We perceive what we believe and we believe in what we perceive. We would get stuck if we try to see from within. It could take a lot, to step out, to get the true picture, to appreciate the beauty of the tangle.
There is always this equal and opposite philosopher inside each of us, just that we don’t like to end up contradicting ourselves, that we mentally deny and kill one of our inner philosophers. We need both of them, every bit, to let us grow, to lift us to a vantage point, to let us see the whole dimension of the context.And it’s absolutely fine to end up in a paradox, for that is how the world is.
Well, I wish to have some answers, some logically reasonable answers, out of my life, that said, I believe in fostering fantasies too, love to get lost in my wonderland, believe those wondrous sparkles, embosom and preserve the mirth of life, and so it does..
SHREELAKSHMI SETHURAMAN 