Absence of a Contrast

Coming out of that Eye hospital, into the bright sunlight on the road, “my eyes were hurting” too badly!....

But, for no fault of my eyes....! The eyes themselves got hurt with that light!... That is when I realised, and a bit experientially too, what that 'dilation' means, ... it is not just dilution of the subject (the eyes)... the object 'becomes concentrated' (the light)... effortlessly! The 'adjustment' takes a painful four hour period!

The eye doctor is magnifying the 'contrast' in the eyes to come to a conclusion!

Small trends, small errors, small way of doing things wrongly, look small too, when we are also small (a kid)... it gets magnified, when we grow in all our dimensions (physicality aspect mostly)... and these small traits get magnified, ... now everybody else is like that 'eye-doctor'... they can easily see, what is wrong with us!

Elephant goes berserk when the 'lens' of its eyes moves aside a little, and it sees other at their 'normal' size ('they' say....)... and then we see... that it goes 'mad' like (we call it 'mad-elephant'... while, possible, it was madly gentle all along, and it is now, that ... it is normal!)....

Are we 'stuck' to an enhanced level of grasp, or that learning-receptivity, ... only... when there is a contrast?... Are we not capable of 'visualising' a situation without the constraints of physicality? These were my doubts about myself, when I was on the 'journey'... I tried to look at various situations of a contrast...

A 'tough' or a strict teacher just leaves the class... the very next class is by a very very kind teacher... small crimes like 'talking to the next classmate' is not even 'noticed' by the teacher! The teacher 'just goes on' with the blabbering quite unmindful of receptivity... What a contrast! Kids love such a teacher! In government offices, where 'sab kuch chalta hai'... only that poor aam aadmi finds 'kuch hota nahi hai... phir bhi why... and how? Sab kuch chalta hai?.. He “is” a contrast... he lacks that vitamin 'M'...

A person sent to far north... or far-south.. where the staple food is a contrast... returns home to find that humble insipid base-staple-food, ... even by-itself,... to be so 'heavenly'!!! (“Arey! Sirf sookhi roti aisey hi kha rahe hain?.. Kam se Kam... daal tho parosney deejiye”.... pleads the spouse... but our dislocated hero is cheerfully humming within.. “Bade acchhe lagte hain.. ye roti, ye bhook, ye bhaasha... A-u-r... TUM!' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pN7sITXVyk )...

15th August 1947.. onwards... we are still 'looking' for that contrast!... Some of us feel, 'arey... iss sey tho woh Angrez behtar thei (The British rulers now seem to have been better, than these politicians.....!)

Suddenly that loud TV is switched off... Ah! The silence suddenly gets 'noticed'!...

That lecture by that 'Maha... maharaj ji... ' did not really go through the head.. most of it went above the head.. still, we feel a little 'peace'... as if that 'Shanti-madam' has given a side-glance at us... while, in reality... in all probability... during the entire lecture, all we were doing is to silently keep looking for those bits of stories, jokes etc... with concepts interwoven in between, subtly... not realising that our own 'gadbad-wali was wailing for lack of attention, and the mind quietly got quietnened, unawares to itself , and by us too!... And that 'peace-prize' goes to... “(we know)” !!! (Even that Maharaj ji might not have been too sure of what he was talking.... some material gathered from here and there, remember the right 'authentic-quotes' scare people with unpronunceable jargon, and impress them!... Spri-tuaal-tea (spirituality) sells to well! Chaandi-hi-chaandi hai! (silver coins, later era of 1500 A.D. +)...}

Absence of contrast... if we just manage to do without it for a while... the logic within us might calm down for a while... The intuitive aspect might brighten up without 'side-effects' that the contrast brings along, and we begin to 'see' kuch kuch subtle things, in a 'much-much' better way!

Contrastingly yours,

psn (11th December, 2013)