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The Perspective of Pain Published on March 13, 2006
Rabindranath Tagore wrote in one of his essays that he finds himself more closely in the darkness. We will generally ask how you can see yourself better in the darkness? It's contrarily to the science of vision. After so many years of brooding on this matter, now I think I understand the contentions of Tagore little better. The ancient Indian philosophy is full of instructions as to how we can discover ourselves to reach our goal of emancipation. The main role is played in this drama of life is our own self. If we look at the stories of our lives one reality always stands alone. This is our own self. The normal human nature does not go along with living by one's self only. We need a company to share our pain and pleasure, even our silence. But in reality we always remain alone because we are made in such a way that our sensitivities are complete in itself. This reality and it's accompanying pain is a never ending contrast. I find pain is more compelling and deeper than pleasure. A feeling of pain always passes through the heart and our total existence. Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy of existence is literally based on this truth, at least I found so. When we read a book we normally remember those lines where the story touches our our inner self, where we find an unity with our deeper soul. I believe that pain is more sharp and penetrating than pleasure, it makes us good human beings, more compassionate and more wiser. In literature the art pain depiction plays a very strong role to make a piece of literature worthy of reading and endurance. Think about Goethe's Faust or Dante's Inferno or Shakespeare's Othello the only truth that stands alone is the feeling of pain. Tagore's short story, Post Master. still creates waves in my mind when I think of these lines: 'Nodibokkhey bhasoman udashin pothiker money ek totther uday hoilo,phiria fol ki aey jogotey kay kahar'. In urdu poetry this expression of pain brings a total fulfillment in the minds of it's readers. The poet says like this,'Mujhey ek tanhai chahiye jahan merey parchai bhi merey saath na ho'. I want such a solitude where even my shadow will not be with me. What a beautiful way of saying. I had a very dear friend who passed away number of years before. His wit, his funny nature, his simplicity and his fathomless love for his friends all I lost when death overpowered his life. I was thousands of miles away from him when his final call came. A few years before I went to visit his grave in his village home. It was a late winter afternoon, I was standing at a grass covered dusty grave. The wind was very mild and low I was all alone with silence of the graveyard. He loved music but on that day it was complete silence. But there was a music, an eternal flow of time mixed with my pain. The player was my pain. What songs my friend is listening now? who gives him company there? My rolling tears brought me to senses and I heard the evening call of prayer from an unknown direction and I started towards the world with me, my pain and my solitude. Akbar Hussain |
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