In continuation with Big Question…

The big question is not “Why are you here?” The big question is “Are you aware of where you are?” And yet, there are always bigger questions, just like there is always a new mystery to solve, a new milestone to achieve, a new record to break. But isn’t there a limit to everything? How far can you go? How high can you jump? How fast can you run?

Usain Bolt holds the world record for men’s 100 meters sprint at 9.58 seconds and he also holds the world record for 200 meters sprit at 19.19 seconds. He wanted to be a runner and there is a certain age when one can sprint like he does. In time, his body will tire out. Forget the world record, he wouldn’t find it possible to even walk for 100 meters. His sprinting earned him worldwide fame and he will always be remembered as “Lightning Bolt”, but the truth is that even “Lightning Bolt” has limitations and he has achieved all that he has achieved by living well within his limitations.

Holding a world record of 100 meters sprint at 9.58 seconds is a remarkable achievement but how many times will a new world record be set up? Will someone be able to run 100 meters in 9 seconds? 8 seconds? 7? Doesn’t seem possible, it isn’t. No one has ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds from five years now and may be the least that will happen is that someone will run 100 meters in 9.57 seconds or 9.56 seconds. Should that be counted as an achievement? I don’t think so. The achievement would be if someone sets up a world record for 100 meters sprint at 8 seconds. But, it would require a superhuman to do so. What can a normal human being, like you and me, do?

Let us expand our view a little. There is a limit to everything. The sun cannot shine forever, the earth cannot bloom forever, trees cannot grow forever, books cannot be preserved forever, birds cannot fly forever, the storms on the Jupiter cannot go on forever, the Viking satellites cannot function forever, ants cannot survive every apocalypse and we cannot live forever. All this cannot happen because everything needs everything else to coexist. Existence is not independent, it depends on the existing. We need the existence of everything so that we can exist peacefully, healthily. Think for a moment and name one thing that is above the limitations and requirement of the existence. Stop reading and think.

Keep thinking.

Think of that one day I asked about in the last article. The day when no one asks you any question, when you begin to believe that no one is bothered about you, that you are worthless. The best thing in such a scenario where no one is asking any questions to anyone is that there will be silence everywhere. It would be like sleeping while being awake, like dreaming but knowing that you are not dreaming. Being silent is not an art of any sort, it is an effort at first, and later, it becomes a habit, a necessity. You will begin to look forward to being silent because something else other than the existing will start talking to you. A consciousness, which has always been around you, which has always been guiding you at certain points of time in your life but you were not aware of it because you were always busy answering and asking stupid questions. All this while, this consciousness was waiting for you to become silent so that it can start telling you the things that you really want to know, the things you knew as a single cell at the time of conception but forgot as you grew up.

This consciousness has a huge amount of patience. It can wait all your life for you to become silent and even if you fail to do so, it won’t mind. It will still wait because there are many others who are still out there, looking for answers. The continuous ranting of one being does not disappoint this consciousness because it has nothing to do with the words of the world. It talks in the language of observation, experience, feelings and emotions. People don’t want to remain silent because they are afraid of this consciousness that talks to them in the moments of silence. Therefore, they go on asking questions. Even if they get no as an answer, they will keep on asking the same questions over and over again.

This is how it is. The mind lives in the no, it is a no-sayer, and its nourishment comes from saying no to each and everything. The mind is basically negative, scared. There is nothing like a positive mind. It is the heart that is positive. That’s why heart rejoices. It is ready to accept everything. The mind asks questions, the heart simply opens up and accepts. The mind makes you think, it makes you a thinker. People may think you are a great thinker, but you are shrinking and dying, slowly, you are committing suicide.

If you say no to love, you are less than what you were before. If you say no to beauty, you are less than you were before. And, if you go on saying no to everything, you will disappear, chunk by chunk. Ultimately, a very empty life is left, meaningless, with no significance, no joy and no celebration.

That is what has happened to the modern man. The modern man has said more no’s than ever before. Modern man does not want to follow his heart, he wants to use his mind because it has achieved impossible feats by using its mind and he is scared enough to let it all go by beginning to listen to his heart, which is telling him to shut up, sit silently and live life fully.

The mind knows only questions and the heart knows only answers. The mind goes on talking, because it cannot answer and it doesn’t want the heart to give you the answers. Hence, philosophy has no answers, only questions and lots of questions, arguments and lots of arguments. Philosophy originates from the mind, it originates from thinking. Each question becomes a thousand questions. The heart has all the answers but the mind will not listen to the heart, there is no communication between the two because the heart only knows the language of silence. No other language is known or understood by the heart and the mind is all noise, a tale told by an idiot, full of fury, signifying nothing, just ranting.

The heart knows what significance is. The heart knows the glory of life, the tremendous joy of sheer existence.

But the question is: “Can you remain silent?”