Sweet little hunter
With tiny webbed feet
Stands the surface
Eyeing its prey beneath
Heart and breath
Both quite and still
Smoothly it floats
Waiting for the kill
As oblivious prey
Comes too close
Piercing the ocean
Hungry beak goes
Pulled out of life
Prey goes dead
One gets killed
And one gets fed
To fly, he craved
Though human, he was
A fool, wise called him
Taught him, the clause
A man, you are
Never, will you fly
Wings, you lack
Why even try
This earth, I rule
Supreme, am I
A bird can do
Why, can’t I
On hill, he stood
Beneath, valley steeped
Arms spread wide
In faith, he leaped
Soaked, in blood
He stayed dead
A bird came by
To him, it said
Like all, you too
With limits are bound
Some meant to fly
Some to stay in ground
A role, each is given
To each, as it fits
Like all, you see around
You too have limits
In pain, he spilled
His words like fire
If limits I have
They why the desire
Thoughts after all
Wander, they will
Some, to feed
Some, to kill
I don’t understand grief, nor sorrow or agony.
These feelings of mind seems absent in me
I don’t understand joy, nor pleasure or ecstasy
These experiences of life too are alien to me
I don’t have any emotion that’s supposed to be
Yet their absence don’t make my life empty
It’s not hard to recollect incidents like these. It happens to everyone. What path do you choose when you stand at such a crossroad? Are you always inclined towards doing what you want to do or you are the person who always does what needs to be done.
The path you choose reveals who we are and determines the experience you’ll have.
If you chose to do what you want…
You will end up achieving almost everything you dreamed of. There won’t be any regret on that front. Life would be satisfying and you will get to say – “Been there, done that” a lot.
On the flip side, you will be pleasing none but yourself; and that would alienate many people. Though you will be happy, you won’t have any worthwhile friend to share that happiness with. People may accept your presence but they will always see you as a self-centered person.
If you choose to do what needs to be done…
You will end up being a problem solver for everyone. You will be respected for your selflessness and many will flock around as friends. For being with you would give them the assurance that there’s someone who’ll always do the right thing no matter what.
On the flip side though, you won’t feel content deep within. Your life will be full of compromises, leaving behind a feeling of emptiness that would remind you of the million opportunities you missed in your lifetime.
Either ways, you lose something that matters. Whether it’s the being loved or being content, you will always miss it, inspite of having the one you most wanted. It’s inevitable.
Is there a way that would give us best of both worlds? Probably!
Why take just one stand throughout your life. Life is not constant. Why should your decisions be? Why shouldn’t you choose the path based on the situation.
If it feels right to go for what we want, then so be it. But if we realize that we should be doing what needs to be done, than may as well do that. This way, every situation will be new and you will be a new person every time. And at all times, you will be content knowing that you’ve done the right thing. It doesn’t matter, if at sometimes you are just doing what is right for you as long as at other times you are doing what is right for others.
Life is a onetime experience. You have a limited time in which you have to meet the eternal purpose of your existence. It’s not wise to have a single pattern of behavior all throughout your life. Most importantly, it’s not expected of you. Life is infinitely variable. It changes every moment, and then why shouldn’t you?
So don’t bother about being content or being loved all the time. There’s nothing wrong in failing to meet other people’s expectation just as much as there’s nothing wrong in being dissatisfied at times. If it’s a moment of social acceptance, so be it. And if it’s a moment of self gratification, then so be it. Just do what you can and be ok with whatever life gives you.
You know, every time we express our Feelings we are actually lying… at least theoretically!
Theoretically a Lie is defined as - “a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth.” This is the case every time words are used to express Feelings.
I am not saying we are all cheats because our intention is not to betray the other person. Rather we are mere victims of inability of the language to express Feelings.
Take for an example, a case when you have said to someone - “I like you!”
What exactly happens within you?
You meet someone and begin to interact with that person. Depending upon the outcome of the interaction you either feel comfortable or uncomfortable. Now the way the mind works, the Feeling of comfort or discomfort is associated with the other person and not the interaction. Mind has this tendency to think in terms of action. It doesn’t consider anything has a happening. For it there everything is an action and there is always a doer behind every action. So when you feel uncomfortable, the mind says - “This person is making me uncomfortable”. Similarly, when you feel comfortable, the mind says - “I feel comfortable with this person”. If the interaction provides pleasure in addition to comfort, you feel happy; and mind says - “This person makes me happy”.
That is what happens in Reality! It is just an incident where a particular interaction has lead to you Feeling happy! But while conveying it to the other person, you say - “I like you!” Theoretically this is an action that you claim to do, but in Reality it was an incident that happened to you!
See the difference?
This holds true for every Feeling that we try to express! What we feel, is an incident that happens to us. And what we express, is an action that we or someone else is doing!
The difference is not just that!
When you say - “I like you!” to someone, the statement doesn’t have an expiry period. An incident is relevant only for a moment, but an action can continue forever. So if suddenly some day you are acting unfriendly, it leaves the other person perplexed. This person then begins to wonder what went wrong between you two.
Also, the act of expressing your Feeling demands an infinite loop of Reaction. The person who expressed the Feeling believes in his action and is now expecting a similar action from the other person. And if the loop is broken at any point than the person who is responsible for the inaction becomes the cause of discomfort.
Eventually, the “I like you!” changes to “I hate you!”
If we run down the memory lane of the Human history, you will realize that no wise person has ever claimed to have known Love! What holds true for Love holds true for any other form of Feeling. Love is just a reference to the ultimate state of pleasure a Human can experience. When the pleasure of someone’s company crosses all boundaries, it transforms into Ecstasy and your mind tells you that you are in love with that person. But at the core, it’s just a Feeling.
Feeling in its truest form is incomprehensible by Humans! To understand a Feeling you need to conceptualize it first and that requires you to speak to yourself. Now, whether you are speaking to yourself or others, you are using language; a language that was devised by Humans to communicate with other beings. A language is a product of Human mind. It works fine when you use it to express Thought processes. Thoughts originate from the Mind. In fact it is a Thought that has led to the invention of a Language. So Language is well-equipped to convey Thoughts. But Feeling is a state of being. It doesn’t originate in the Mind. Rather your Mind tries to comprehend it logically. There’s nothing logical about a Feeling. It is a state of Being that you pass through every now and then. There’s no way a Thought, a product of Mind can help you decipher the complexity of a Feeling that resonates outside the Mind.
Conclusively, what you cannot understand, you cannot explain! The fact is there is no way to express Feelings. But if we were to stop expressing our Feelings than how can we convey it to the other person? Every attempt of yours to do so is just an error in interpretation of that which is absolutely inexpressible.
This is where I begin to wonder? Why in the first place do we want to convey our Feelings? Every Human action is influenced by a Desire to achieve a set Goal. If we are conveying our Feelings, what we hope in return is that the other person reciprocates in a similar way. It’s a part of our tendency to be social. We want to be closely connected with certain set of people, who make us feel comfortable. To keep them close to us, we try to express our Feelings. If they convey the same Feeling it is understood that the two are connected and will remain so till the situation changes between them, to be precise one of them breaks the loop of expression.
