Remusings

Shijya and Moni were brothers, twins conceived at the same time, sharing the same womb, connected by the same life-force. Their destinies had been entwined from the moment of their birth. Yet, despite the congruence of their cosmic karma, the lives of Shijya and Moni unfolded in perfectly divergent paths, in diametrically opposite tangents. So much so that it made their kinship almost unrecognizable to those who knew them.  Shijya was the ideal child, a paragon of virtue, and the embodiment of studiousness, diligence and integrity. He excelled at everything he did. A favourite among his teachers, and a darling to his aunts and uncles, he was known to be humble, polite, kind, and helpful. He had no enemies and many friends, all of whom saw him as a reliable confidant they could turn to at any time. By the time he was 16, Shijya had all academic avenues open to him to explore any field of study he wanted, winning scholarships and Ivy League admissions. He was also frequently seen spe...

Long before the Oracle pointed Neo to the words above her doorway, numerous teachers, sages and mystics have uttered different versions of the same maxim - "Know Thyself". Although historians credit the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (~ 500BC) with the first written record of the saying, there are various articulations of the same aphorism which date back even further. For example, in shamanic wisdom traditions, some of which find their roots 5000-6000 years ago, there is great emphasis on acquiring deep self-knowledge before assuming the role of a shaman. Similarly, Buddhist teachings dating back to around 2500 BC centre around meditative practices that equip one to delve into one's inner universe. Closer to present day, the Hadith quotes Prophet Muhammad saying "whosoever knows himself knows his lord", highlighting the importance of self-knowledge for communion with the divine. Meanwhile, in the bible, when Jesus Christ asks his followers to "know the kingd...

Tomar ghore bash korey kara, o mon jano na. Tomar ghore boshot kore koijona.  Fakir Lalon Shah is known by all Bengalis as a spiritual mystic, sage, poet, and a prominent proponent of the philosophy of humanism. The song above by Fakir Lalon originally dates back to the late 17th century. However, sometime in the late 90's this song received a vivacious revival by a local band in Dhaka. I remember vividly the buzz it stirred up for me and my teenage peers back then. The song was catchy, fun to sing along, the lyrics simple, the words learnable and the music familiar. Pretty soon, we were singing it everywhere - at lakeside concerts, cultural festivals, house parties and rooftop hangouts. It became the anthem that reaffirmed our Bengali identity.  20 years went by and the song became archived in our memories. All that time, I was under the comfortable impression that I understood what the song was saying. I had settled for a very literal interpretation of the words on the surfa...

What is reality? Where does one anchor one's sense of what is real? In other words, what is the true nature of the phenomenon of our experience? These questions contain many loaded terms, much-debated and discussed. As such, they can quickly become philosophical dynamite, the kind that could burst into flames by the tiniest spark of a misspoken word or an ill-pondered conjecture. Nonetheless, some deem these questions worth asking, to grab hold of that philosophical dynamite, to stroll through the cloud of metaphysical splinters, to brave the tumult of the raging epistemic tempest. All in the hope of reaching some imagined calm centre of understanding, enlightenment, deliverance, redemption, yada, yada, yada . Here is one such attempt.   Things and Stuff: The fetish of materialism, as manifested today through consumer capitalism, is no stranger to anyone, anywhere, anymore. While it takes different forms in different places, the essence of the obsession is the same. On Wall St...