Swami Vivekananda is perhaps the only spiritual researcher who addressed the world as a nation and not as a state; a communion of different communities. In one of his sessions, he wrote and spoke about the Karma Yoga mentioned in The Bhagavad Gita in his own way without fabricating anything that Krishna tried to teach Arjuna. One of the many chapters of Karma Yoga focuses on the aspect of duty where Swamiji beautifully describes what is meant by duty and how we are decimating it even after being a follower of Sanatana (or research). Now it wouldn’t be offensive to say that no matter who we’re, we do fail in our duty every day, and we find a piece of write-up that pushes us and we ignore or boycott it. Poems do the same task, mostly. It is the sword of the brave ones.
Swamiji said, “The one point we ought to remember is that we should always try to see the duty of others through their own eyes, and never judge the customs of other people by our own standards. I am not the standard of the universe. I have to accommodate myself to the world and not the world to me”. The most progressive intellectual, for once, has failed to perform this duty and he/she is still unconscious of it, and hence isn’t correcting the same. To not be able to adhere to what the Karma Yoga or The Bhagavad Gita or to be precise, the Sanatana Dharma has always tried to establish is adharma in every way, unless we’re the only ones carrying the universe with us (which we’re not, obviously). Artists come out to make us realize the steps we’re taking. That makes us an Adharmi. Dharma stands above any religion or individual.
“Thithurte Lamppost (Shaking lamp-posts)” penned by a very responsible and beautiful poet of Bharat named Adnan Kafeel Darwesh is all about Dharma. Rebels do not come out wearing anything that’s red/orange/black or metallic or may be self-hating. They come out like a saint or fakir with nothing but a society in mind. I don’t care whether it’s a left-leaning or right-leaning society. The only thing I know is that both should take care of Dharma, and Dharma lives in the presence of an existence, which we do not care about. People are getting ruined just because they’re either busy pleasing each other or pleading for something/someone. Darwesh beautifully pens the important aspects of what we observe and how we’re living. He equally has the heart and guts to make us fall in love with what he penned and also to offend us with it just by showing what we’re doing and tolerating, respectively.
Darwesh is an observer. He knows that the city opens up like the sun and the queue of the people who are building places we live in. He stunned me when he wrote a poem on just a shoe that’s getting wet because of the raindrops and he doesn’t have the sadness of losing the feet he used to be under. It is easy to observe anything that’s very simple and to pen a poem on it. But one must have the soul (rooh) in him/her to speak of the seductive silence of those simple things. Darwesh has that soul. He kept on growing with every poem. The book is a collection of five years of cultivation. He cultivated his conscience, sharpened it and also lived the life of every individual he came across without leaving anything or any instance untouched. This is the only time when I’d say that I absolutely loved his act of perversion. The most beautiful and offensive quality of an artist is that he/she is a pervert. A very proper one. But think about the book you’re reading or the film you’re watching or the song you’re singing right now. You’ve the work of a pervert.
Adnan Darwesh writes:
“Night is a very big eye
where I
dance like its pupil
city-city….
I am
the ruins of unfulfilled wishes
walls of a kind of madness
where you’ll find
the advertisement of your name!”
Feel the poem. Like really feel it. Ask yourself what is it? Is it a love story? I did the same, and yes, it is one of the most beautiful love stories. Is it a piece of satire? I’d say, “yes it is”. Is it something that speaks of an everlasting longing? Of course, in every way possible. Does it belong to the left or right? It belongs to everyone who’s alive. That’s what makes the poet and this collection of astonishment so important and beautiful.
Before going into the Mandukya Upanishad, which is the smallest yet the toughest one out of the ten principal Upanishads, a monk gave an example of a story. He started with the story where once King Janaka woke up from a nightmare in which he saw that his kingdom, Videha, was attacked by one of his enemies and he had to see the death of thousands of his soldiers. He was then asked to go to exile where he had to spend his life like a beggar with deadly injuries and a tough time. He woke up and then saw that he was just having a nightmare. He constantly kept on asking everyone “This truth or That Truth”. Everyone started thinking that King Janaka must have lost his mind.
In the meantime, Ashtavakra Muni came to his kingdom and sat on the throne of King Janaka where he asks the same question to the Muni. The Muni simply asked, “King Janaka! Were you living a luxurious life with your queen and ministers in your nightmare?” The king said, “No”. Ashtavakra again asked, “Can you feel the sufferings of your dream over here?” The King said, “No”. The Muni then said, “Then none of them is true”. Following which Janaka asked, “Then are you saying that nothing is true?” Ashtavakra simply stood and said that you are the only one living your reality; and you are the one who lived the nightmare. So, the only truth is “you”. The compilation of these philosophical conversations between King Janaka and Ashtavakra Muni is what we now know as The Ashtavakra Gita or Samhita.
The philosophy of “Thithurte Lamppost” lies in understanding/knowing the self and the things and beings associated with it. That’s what counts when one has to really know how to live the one life we have. Darwesh keeps on exploring the modern world like some old fellow enjoying his ‘chillam’ or ‘hookah’. The most insightful and influential people of this world don’t go through any kind of textbook or do not believe in being on a list. They just keep on sharing what they have experienced. It is sad that what we’re being today is very much against who we actually are and what we believe in. Our existence is our reality, and if anyone is trying to suppress/oppress our reality, then start considering it as a lie. No one has the power to dismantle anyone’s existence. The book just made me revisit everything I read. It has the power to make you believe in everything that’s keeping Dharma alive in this world.
Also read | How Stoicism influenced music from the French Renaissance to Pink Floyd