Karma police, rambling, thinks out loud #hometown

I belong to a paradise, but not the usual surreal abode tied to heaven. Ours is a paradise of decadence. The paradise of destruction. The paradise of the End.

Most of the times, the air is so dark with gross pessimism and is filled with taunting cries. But now and then I do take side, not of those incurable optimists, but those who see there do exist some light at the end of the leirak.

Light, karma, action

The Buddha professed there is no east nor west in the sky, that we had created a distinction out of our minds, and that we believe them to be true. We are indeed made up of our beliefs. We believe in our folks and myths that we were created first and we would be the people who would endure till the world ends (according to Meitei thoughts). Then some vegetarians came from Bangladesh to equalise puran with puya*. Now we believe we have to die seven times to attain salvation. Though we still believe that climbing the Koubru is as auspicious as attending a bhajan session.

Several other routes, however, were charted to decrease the number of times we are born. The mystics saw that asceticism was overloaded with strange things for the people. So they believed the common folks, in their earthly capacity, can follow the law of Manu. Also, man does not live by bread alone, so he has to earn both bread and butter. Slog day in and day out but the sages advised, the mortals should revere the idols, take pilgrimages and perform dozens of rituals. We are advised to do things right. And do the right thing.

In spite of the damn sure ticket to heaven, we don’t always do the right thing. Leave alone the right time and the right place. So the men, women, old and young will have to be born again. In fact, everything—including the land, air and water—will have to die and born again. Six times more, at least, so that we complete the proverbial seven lives and get out of harm’s way! In these so many lives, perhaps we might also do away with our laziness, our overtly critical and cynical attitude, our insanity, and our helplessness. Possibly we will live in a better world.

Atop the ivory tower 

I damn, therefore I am. At the end of the day—though I got nothing to do with others’ faiths and beliefs—I have a desire to see the present social order crumbles like a house of card, so that we can build a new structure. Reflect and see what is beyond the obvious. Blame me for being too judgmental but our contemporary society is just too much for our generation: people killing each other every day, money—the filthiest money—can only break a deal, kidnap, extortion, bomb blasts, shootings, spineless governments, juveniles burning down the schools, people burning down public library, the dogmatic beliefs, the ethnic showdown, access to mere medieval-period services, the schisms, the exodus and so on.

What ought to replace this mess? A new of thinking… that would help and even better if we can find solutions without hurting the people’s sentiments.

In a crisis, each one of us has to put in some extra efforts to understand; the collective awareness helps a lot in dousing the wild fire. It is easy to criticise things, and often hard to make the things easy. So instead of putting on more fire, the best we can do is to understand and be aware. We damn those things that we hold dear because we have a taken-for-granted mentality, and because we want to make them better, otherwise things that don’t matter never matter at all!

Collective consciousness

The connection that we have as human beings must be stronger than the trifling matters that divide us. Mutuality! Mutuality! Mutuality! Sometimes it seems like the thought of the people is much more complex than the deepest mystery.

A form of defiance, I’m convinced, should be simulated from idealism. The lofty pursuits of ideals are more than applying ready-made solutions to the problems. They are rather the building blocks in forming the right mental and moral attitudes to critique the issues and pave the way for better actions or even results. Discretion is the better part of valor, so be it. When there are rudimentary changes, we should reconstruct our thinking and attitudes to cope with the challenges. This is also why I believe in individualism.