Engraving Empathy (Lent 2)

One of the best illustrations to explain empathy is ‘to get into another’s shoes’, and that truly means a lot. When we come to the level of empathy, we cannot be mere spectators, outsiders, who have no direct correlation to the people affected. It is not to shed crocodile tears for the suffering, nor is it to condescend on the people who are less fortunate or unfortunate, as the case may be! It refers to climbing down from one’s pedestal to be one with the affected. The word “coming down” has its own significance in the mystery of salvation, and Tagore in one of his beautiful poems from Gitanjali would hark on this image of “coming down”, when he says, “Such is your love, that you came down for us”.

One of the pre-conditions of expressing empathy is that I first of all give up my pedestal, give up my comfort and security, to take part in the insecurity of the other! I cannot hold on to my own security and yet wish to empathize with a suffering brother or sister. Thus to empathize with another person is not a joke, nor is it a casual act of charity I can do at will. There are very few challenging thing in life than to expressing empathy for a known or unknown brother or sister. Empathy is sure to disturb my social security system, my well-chalked out programs, my relationship with others, my good name and honor; everything may go haywire with empathy, but we shall realize at the end that it is all worth the trouble.

When I come down to get into the shoes of another, I am also soaring up in my listening capacity; from being able to listen to my inner Spirit, I am able to “participate” in the inner silence of the other. Beyond the cry, suffering and pain of the other is the inner silence of each person, and in empathy, I allow myself to mingle with the silence of the other. I am rising to a higher level of sensitivity, and experience of the ever Present, the eternal Now! Thus empathy is not a human act, but a call to participate in the divine confluence of stillness, where all tears and sweat find their culmination; where all pain and suffering find their end.

Let me present yet another image to empathy! It is to wear the color glasses of another; I would be seeing the world with his/her eyes; if the world looks green to him, so should it be for me; if the sun looks yellow for him, so should it be for me too. What happens here is something difficult to grasp: I am giving up my personal liberty, will, memory, understanding, in order to become a passive power, which can to tossed, molded by another. I become powerless before the world, when I put on these color glasses, and it is only I who would be able to realize the immense power of being powerless! After all most of world’s most powerful persons were powerless in one way or the other!

One of the greatest tests that the world would present to me, if I venture to empathize with my brothers and sisters, it is the endurance test for empathy! The wax candle which consumes itself in order to shed light cannot last forever; there is a time frame attached to it! There may be occasions when it may be threatened by the breeze from outside or the air from the ceiling fan, but when it allows itself to burn completely and unconditionally, its duty is done. Every test for empathy is a leap in faith in the eternal Being, who alone is the master of the universe, in whose lap all the worlds find existence. Empathy transports me from the human to the divine world! It is a gateway to eternity!

Mutilating Music

The two-days college festival has raised the noise pollution in the vicinity to manifold, and the heap of dust which generally gathers on the furniture had doubled, due to the over-enthusiastic students, who were on the ad hoc noise competition, though no prize was given for this item. As one nears the college, it was obvious that one can listen to the numbers without getting close to the stage; one can easily make out the singer and the song from about 300 meters. But about 2000 odd students who had gathered at the grounds did not bother about the noise; they could still speak to their boy/girl friends over the mobile phones!

Who bothers about the noise and pollution? We all delight in making promises, declarations about how we would save the planet, but when it comes to annual functions, we let the students have what they want. I wish the college administration had the courage to tell the students that there is a decorum that needs to be observed in organizing college annual festivals. Western bands are the craze in all city colleges, though not too many of the students are used to listening English numbers, and there would be just about one third of the students who might enjoy such crazy-sounding, out-of-pitch, high sounding numbers.

In communication theories, noise is defined as unwanted, unpleasant sound, and that is what most of the modern singing turn out to be. It is the death of music in the name of voice modulation. Any abnormal and unusual noise is branded as creative expression, and higher the decibel of the noise created, the better it is esteemed. Maybe the so-called fusion artistes of the western tradition may have to listen for a second time some of the Indian classical music pieces, where one will observe that higher the pitch, the softer is the tonal quality, and even at the peak of one’s voice, the artiste would blend his voice with the instrument in such a way that there is perfect unison. That is the music which can reach directly into our hearts and arouse manifold feelings.

Kolkata has seen an alarming mushrooming of ‘bands’, Chandra Bindu, Lokhichara, Dheu, and the faster they appear, the quicker they disappear. Some of them survive because of one or two popular albums, and they imagine they have the artistic licence to do whatever they way, just because people had paid a price to purchase their albums, and they had done fairly well in the competitive market. But time will tell us that the people who know how to distinguish genuine soul-renting music from cheap, popular music, will one day throw these bands into oblivion, and bring back the traditional music forms. Then we shall hear again Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Atul Prasad, Ram Prasad, and we shall be elated to an altogether different realm.

Any attempt to bring dishonor to music is a dangerous attempt; the very people who may jump to the tune of some uncanny creative artist, may condemn the same music as noise. Human creativity can find different expressions to delve deep into the heart of all reality, and music can provide one familiar medium. If common people are deprived of this privilege to enter into another plane of reality through music, then music itself may transform its mode and reach the very people it is created for. Music can never be murdered, nor can it be mutilated. For no one can deny the music of one’s heart beat, one’s breathing, one’s flash of eyelids; for there is music in every being, both animate and inanimate, and those who can hear this music are truly heavenly beings!

God of Taboos

Taboos are cousins of superstitions, and in the modern world we would think there is nothing that can strictly be called a taboo. What had been a taboo for several centuries is an accepted fact, but whether we like it or not, taboos are tied to our personality and our upbringing. And to make things worse, what is a taboo in one country is not so in another, and one is left to wonder whether to consider it as a taboo or not.

Certain words are considered taboo words, and we would not utter them, even if we were to die. And if we consider them carefully there are many such words; for instance, inner clothes and genitals are considered 'bad' words, and we would go all the way to find some other soft words to imply to them. We have grouped them under taboo terms, and even those who have studied science would hesitate to use these words. Is there not something for us to think if this is really going to help us look forward?

Tribal communities are known to be holding on to certain taboos; for instance, for each of the sept, there will be one particular animal whose meat they cannot eat, and one particular tree, which they cannot fell, because they are related to the sept by blood. Thank God for this taboos, among the tribals, still we have most of the trees intact. But times are fast changing, and soon there will be too few tribals who would be honoring their ageold taboos, and protect flora and fauna at least within their localities.

There are still social and cultural taboos; in the Indian society, it is a taboo for the woman to even touch a plough; similarly it is a taboo for men to fetch water from the well. But the number of taboos are fast disappearing, and soon we may come to a situation, when it will be quite hard to explain to the then generations what a taboo is.

God is not spared from these taboos; there are certain names of God, which are considered taboos, and therefore we have to find other words to explain the same. The four letter Hebrew word for God has been considered a taboo word, and in order to respect the sentiments of Jews in abstaining from pronouncing the word, the Catholic Church has instructed her children to that effect. And yet behind all the taboos, one will be able to seek and find the 'God of taboos'.