Tag: Nature

Alienation and Creativity

Creation for capitalism, consumerism and pleasure maligns its true purpose which actually is to create joy and a sense of belonging, comfort and safety. Alienation is the end effect of such capitalist processes where people have isolated their humans side for the rat races and FOMOs. Pure creativity, empathy, connect with nature and self can help use to preserve that human core and come out of the alienation.

How true forms of creativity can help us to reconnect with our human core

“On The Train Ride Home” by The Paper Kites

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I found –

Maya Angelou

Humans – the creative animals

I think creativity is the most important quality granted to human beings. Nature in itself is the ultimate and the best creation which at the same time is also the creator of many things. Animals, non-human beings too have the gift of creativity to certain extent but human beings have outperformed in using this gift of creativity. We are always creating something, we have tools, we have automated processes to create anything we can understand. This creation of things has led us to becoming the most developed species on the planet. Creation can be in any sense – creation of music/ art/ cultures, families/ society, factories/ industries/ conglomerates, institutions/ organizations, cities/ metropolitan, governments, policies, supply chain, and what not! All these creations are intertwined to prove how advanced the human species is. You must also remember that once a process of creations starts generating fruitful outcomes it gets automated to optimize, to improve the efficiency. Most of the times we forget that some creative processes are not meant to be optimized because value of their outcomes is not materialistic. The concept of efficiency and/or optimization is purely materialistic concept. But as we are progressing ahead as the species, most of our creation processes are getting robotized, where materialistic outcomes are more important than the process of creation itself.  

Young generation has crucial role in deciding the future course of our species, especially when we have this great tool of creation – our creativity itself. People of my generation (millennials and Gen-Z to some extent) are the key creators of this time who will decide where our future will lead us. This generation is completely busy in various ventures of creation to justify their own life. But, as I have mentioned before, our creation processes have become so mechanistic, so robotic to gain more, extract more materialistic outcomes that this young generation is getting more and more detached from the real purpose of creation in its true spirit. The consumerism and (crony) capitalism has thrown today’s youth into a forced state of alienation in spite of being living in crowd, densely populated resourceful, glamorous cities. We are lonely in spite of being surrounded by the crowd.

This loss of attachment from the spirit of creation has led to the alienation of the today’s young generation – who many times go through the feelings of isolation, meaninglessness, directionless, confusion – it’s not just a normal existential crisis through which every young generation of their times goes through rather it’s the blurring of the true spirit of living in today’s young generation. Please keep in mind that it is not mistake of this same young generation. The system, society, institutions have evolved in such way that the creative processes are getting designed more for materialistic optimization instead of getting created for the real upliftment of the human civilization. Feels like we are losing touch of the real purpose of our being.

An Australian indie rock band called The Paper Kites released a song called “On the Train Ride Home” which in my opinion tries to touch those feeling of “alienation” which our today’s young generation is going through. Deep down we all know what we really want, we know what our core is but the systems in which we are living today have made our lives more and more mechanical, even though we are in the process of creation that creation no more belongs to us, that detachment, that alienation, that freedom from the vicious capitalistic cycle is what we are yearning for in the end. This is what this song for me is.

The Paper Kites
L–R: David Powys, Sam Bentley, Sam Rasmussen, Christina Lacy, Josh Bentley

I will dissect this song from the point of alienation; for me that is what it is all about.

The lyrics of the song is credited to Samuel Bentley, On the Train Ride Home lyrics copyright: Wonderlick Pty Limited

(It’s a song which needs to be treasured, hidden from others so that no one spoils it and I know I am committing a personal crime by exposing it. But such creations need more exposure and deserve proper appreciation too.)  

Waiting down at the station
I don't remember, think it was late then
Standing, always so quiet
We're like elevators filled up with strangers
No sound, no hallelujah's
Still I was praying on the train ride home

The starting of the lyrics creates an imagery of the person waiting for a train home. The complete separation from the surrounding has made this person to forget vivid details, it shows the mundane-ness, the separation from surrounding to just reach a safe, calming place which is home. The feeling of loneliness in spite of being in the crowd shows how there is no emotional connect between people. Elevator filled with strangers shows that people are closer and more connected, more accessible but they are not closer emotionally. This is exactly today’s situation, social networking and internet brought us so close that we can ‘poke’ our friend living in another hemisphere within few seconds and still we will see people craving for true connections more than ever. No hallelujah’s shows the loss of spirit, loss of soul in people who are part of this – physically close but emotionally isolated crowd.

If I can't get the things I want
If I can't get the things I want
Just give me what I need

Here, the person is aware of the difference between wants and needs which shows that his/ her separation from home to go to the crowded place to create a better resourceful life was not the ultimate goal. This is the only way through which this person can live a life. The system based on the cycles of consumption has narrowed down the meaning of living a life to mere survival. One can get as many things by obeying this cycle of consumption but it will not satisfy the hunger – the emotional hunger, that intimate craving of humanity. The distinction and use of wants and needs is a very smart way to show how the person is trapped in the system to survive but deep down they know what actually makes a fulfilled life. That is why person asks for basic fulfilment if not all what they desired.       

Our words fill up the pages
Fill up the days with psalms for the ages 
Still those vows that we all speak
We break them like concrete
And just make our words cheap

This part of song shows how words have lost their worth. Words in the sense the sense of commitment, sense of loyalty to keep the promises. The piousness of the daily prayers, the vows are less cared for. This expression shows how insensitive we have become to just gain the materialistic means, to survive.

This is exactly where it struck me that this song is not just about average existential angst every young generation goes through; this song is more about the alienation of a person where system does not value real creativity – which gives our lives meaning. The system now has been maligned with the materialistic efficiency. Consumption has become more important than the end effect it creates. Mention of “wants” and “needs” thus highlight the culture of consumption here.    

I want someone to grow with
Songs I can sing to, and I family to cling to

The song tries to conclude with the ultimate pursuit for living a better life. Why are we all doing the things which we do? Why do we go on job? Why do we work all week, live paycheck to paycheck without any greater purpose – in spite of knowing that we hate this work at its core? Why knowingly, intentionally are we craving for more and more materialistic pleasures?

I think it is because of the recent vile cycle of consumption. I have a reason to justify this. Somewhere we know that the process of creation in which we are involved is not doing justice with our pure humanistic core.

As a human being all we crave for is the mutual growth, sense of fulfillment, love and intimacy for each other in this limited time on the earth. We know that ultimate goal of creation should be this humanistic goal, but the moment the creation loses this human touch we suffer from alienation, a sense of directionless, sense of being confused, a sense of trapped inside an infinite maze. This is the exact moment when the person craves for home, family and intimacy.

The train ride home is that craving for being the real human being who values emotions, commitment, love and happiness of the loved ones.

But If I can't get the things I want
If I can't get the things I want
Just give me what I need

The person understands that in this seemingly flashy, attractive, glamorous but mechanistic, mundane, lonely and unemotional life there is some hope that they at least will be able to preserve their human core. The request for the “need” over “wants” is the cry for that preservation of the human core.

Alienation

What urged me to completely (and maybe blindly) associate the lyrics of this song to alienation is how Socialism defines the concept of alienation. Karl Marx identified how a process of creation thereby value creation could isolate its creator from its creation. This isolation of creation and creator once intensified removes all the human, emotional attributes from the process of creation and here the brutal capitalism starts. The creation is now mere a mechanical, boring routine of materialistic revenue creation where humanity has no value.

Karl Marx on alienation

Karl Marx presented very beautifully the purpose of creation in human life. It is what separates human beings from other animals, non-humans. We are always involved in creative process which have a personal purpose, a meaning. That is why our creations and it’s end results are so intense and are way different than how other non-human creative processes. The moment such processes start demonstrating the separation of creator, the process of creation and the end-product of creation, capitalism/ consumerism start peeking their head out thereby slowly eliminating what made such things processes humanistic. This exactly is alienation, there is no sense of home, comfort or belonging.     

Marx defined four types of alienation in his discussions:

Alienation of an object –

A factory labor stitching the designer clothing does not bear the capacity to own it and enjoy it. Even though the labor holds the skill and knowledge to create that fancy clothing the system is rigged in such way that the emotional connect between creator and creation is lost forever.

Alienation of process –

The process of creation has become so mechanical, so repetitive to improve the efficiency and to increase the output that humans involved in them have also became mechanical, unemotional. Today’s young generation working in mundane jobs, the jobs they hate only for the paycheck and the job without any personal purpose is the example of that alienation. The separation of creator from objects makes the object accessible to anyone but this accessibility is not equally distributed because the input to output ratio is highly skewed. The value that is created in the creation of the object does not reward the creator in any good way thus creator – the labor remains poor. This also make the creator to lose the faith in the process thereby leading to the alienation of the process.

Alienation of species-being –  

The moment this mundane, highly optimized process does not bear any real humanistic purpose, the creator no longer follows the process to reach a better position in life spiritually, intellectually through the process of creation. It’s like the human creator has become a machine giving throughput. A sense of being a better species is lost forever – this is another form of alienation.

Alienation between humans –

Once the creator no longer has a direct connect to its creation, has no faith in the process for better pivot of meaning, has no sense of humanity, the value for another human life is lost. It is not because the creator or this person demeans or belittles others, it is because the creator himself/ herself does not consider their efforts their value of better worth, hence same treatment is given to people in their surroundings.

There is one famous snippet of a speech from Gabor Maté, a Canadian-Hungarian physician who has done work in ADHD, trauma, childhood development.

Gabor talks about broader scope of alienation which somewhat is based on the Marx’s idea of alienation.

Alienated from nature –

We as the human species no longer have that connect with nature which has resulted in its deterioration. You might have seen that there are still some tribes living in the remotest, inaccessible areas round the globe which are completely in tune with the nature and have preserved it. Today’s consumerism has detached our objects of consumption from their consequences on nature thereby destroying it.

We have to somehow re-establish that connect with nature otherwise nature has its way of adjusting things (we are seeing its effects all around the globe). And remember that this re-connection is also linked to we being the human beings. I mean, who doesn’t like lush greenery, pristine rivers and remarkable biodiversity!

One of the first condition of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.

Leo Tolstoy
Alienated from work –

The works we are engaged in are rarely driven by a meaning or a higher purpose. Even if it has some meaning it is immediately inked to some materialistic thing, there is nothing wrong in it as far as survival is concerned but at least this awareness should push us to work for the things with higher humanistic, spiritual purpose, that is our real core as the creative beings. The alienation from work has led to depression, anxiety, emotionless feeling, numbness among every one of us. We are replacing this meaninglessness by other material means which involve how we look, what we possess. Such means of damage control are creating more damage to who we are and what we work for which defines us. You will see, the economy we live in highly focuses on associating meaningful experiences to materialistic products.

Alienated from other people –

The moment we lose the hope and connection between our surrounding we are losing some human part in ourselves which dims down our perception of humanity for others. We trust very few people or almost no one, the relationships rarely have that depth, that intimacy. Social structures based on the depth of relationship are dwindling. The mental illnesses are emerging due to the lack of social emotional support system, growing intolerance, apathy on global level are also effects of that.

The start of the song where it mentions people filled in the elevator, disinterested and having been lost their spirit is the same alienation.

We have to start forgiving people again, create safer environments where we can express ourselves without any prejudice. It is scientifically backed that putting trust in people and treating them with high worth makes them trustworthy and high performer (see Pygmalion effect) In the end, everyone of is craving for someone to rely on and also someone who will make our sacrifices worth of the hardships. Associating positivity of self-worth to being appreciated and being respected for who we are is hardwired in our human circuitry. Our existence gets redefined to higher standards the moment other people (even single person) recognize it. (History has examples where people did impossible for far lesser people who believed in them without expecting anything in return)  

The urge to cling to a family, sing a song to someone, grow with someone mentioned in the song is asking to escape from such form of alienation.

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night

Margaret Mead
Alienated from ourselves-

We have lost the connect our inner self, our curiosities, our inner child in the pursuit of the consumerist ends. The disconnect with the surrounding and numbness to the processes in which we are involved is furthermore deteriorating our inner human core. We rarely listen to our gut feelings, instincts because presence of lots of data, information around us creates a false sense of understanding of the things around us. This is alienation from ourselves, we don’t even trust ourselves – a simple advertisement or targeted influence is enough to make us buy that next thing that we don’t even want.

The part in the song where it talks about making our words cheap is the alienation from self. There is no concept of morality and inner compass in such alienation.

We know deep down what exactly is happening with us and around us but the system rarely creates conditions to come out of that.

How to de-alienate?

The desire to know your soul will end all other desires

Rumi

The core reasons of alienation lie in the loss of empathy, loss of higher meaning/ purpose and loss of responsibility/ commitment (committing to something to change the course of life requires higher sense of responsibility). We are empaths by default as a human being, so it is imperative to preserve this attribute even if the surroundings force the opposite. I know this is difficult when we are responsible for multiple things and people, but you are also responsible for yourselves. It is worthless if you win, achieve something great while losing yourself in the end.

The creative processes whose outcomes are not attached to any material means are thus the purest paths to avoid such alienation in the times of high consumerism and negative effects of capitalism. High consumption is an addictive form of alienation which can be nullified by pure creation. Consumption will give pleasure but creation will give joy.

The prayer to ride home in the song is the hope that we will again meet ourselves in spite of such extreme disconnect. Pure creativity is the answer to such prayers as far as the process elimination of alienation from our life goes.

What separates human beings from rest of the animals is their creative ventures otherwise we are exactly like all other living things. We are the beings who engage in multiple activities of creation which are driven by conscious intent, a reason. This ability to create something has led us to become the technically advanced species on the planet. If we establish the connect with our inner core through meaningful creation, the victory over all forms of alienation is possible.

True creation is all about connecting to every possibility there is.

Such deep concept of alienation expressed in a wholesome and soulful song by The Paper Kites truly deserves more and more appreciation and recognition. Words failed me to express how it made me feel (that is exactly why I didn’t control my words count, where few verses of this song did the same job. No wonder poetry is highly potent than prose!)

The song-

The American Scholar – The Books, The Actions, Intellectual Humility and The Dictionary of Life

Part-2 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay called “The American Scholar” made an attempt to move people out of their immediate achievements of separation from the English Government and inspired them to create something new, create and value the processes for building strong future generations and deep knowledge of nature. Even though this essay was more relevant for the American generation which was largely dependent on their English legacy, it still remains relevant because of the crispness of truth it holds for every new generation of humanity. The speech/ essay will always transcend the understandings of every generation. See Part 1 to understand how Emerson sets up the ideas of the nature, the knowledge, the purpose of education system and the true scholar in the starting part of his world famous essay.

Now, moving on to Emerson’s advise for a true scholar.

Books – The Mind of the Past and its Blind Worshipers

Emerson wants to establish the ways in which the past wisdom was transferred to the next generation. He refers to it as a distillation process. Over the period of humanity, the crude things in experiences, events lost their unwanted parts and went on to become concise, crisp through books. This process created the truths, the facts. The cruder the event, the experiences the less crisper the truth. Emerson explains the imperfections in this process of truth generation by giving analogy of Vacuum Pump. As no vacuum pump can generate the perfect vacuum, no machine can give out exact amount of work to the exact amount of energy input, the process of creating the truth is also not completely efficient. Thus, it is absolutely impossible to establish the ultimate truth in a single attempt, in single past. The best version of the truth we have today is the truth that has stood the test of time, the truth which has been upgraded over the time. It is very interesting to understand how Emerson thought over the ideas of the books and the evolution of truth through them. He connected a very technical idea of efficiency of any mechanical system to a more abstract idea of the extent of the truth value of knowledge.

Emerson also highlights that the age-old books will not stand the test of today’s truths as there will be may stages of evolution in between which will lose their footprint over time. For example, the idea of the earth being carried on the back of the turtles, the elephants, the snake’s head the earth being flat is lost to the ideas of eclipses, the seasons and the actual images of the earth (even though there are still some admirers to these ideas! And it is also important to understand how people interpreted them)

Thus, Emerson in a sense warns every scholar, every person to not become just an admirer, a follower, a worshiper of the book. Because, the understanding and the experience with which the book was written, the truth was conveyed will not exactly be the same experience, the same understanding for the reader. The inefficiency of the system is the boundary of the reader which can only show him the limited understanding of the truth.

“Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and soul. Hence the restorers of readings, the emendators, the bibliomaniacs of all degrees. This is bad; this is worse than it seems.”       

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson expresses his sorrow for the fate of the books. He calls the people who blind worship the books “the Bibliomaniacs” and “the Emendators” as in the editors of the truths who create their versions of the truth. Emerson expects a true scholar to not become a book worshiper or a past worshiper. Worshiping the past is the death of the evolutionary thinking thereby restricting the flow of generational distillation of true knowledge. Emerson wants a true scholar to lose the idea of a book lover, book worshiper and become a genius. In some way Emerson tries to define a genius. For that he uses the idea of “an active soul”. An active soul is free from the blind influences of the past and thereby the books. It is not following a defined orbit around the truths from the books, rather an active soul itself is capable of creating a system around which others will orbit. The teachings of the schools/colleges, the subjective truths of past from books are questioned by this active soul further called as the genius by Emerson. This Genius is responsible for the creation of the next version of the absolute truth; there is a sense of progression this genius brings. For that he should break out of the past, come out of merely following the books, look forward to the future. Emerson mentions how mere worshiping of Shakespearean pieces killed the future creative progression of English literature. Many creators became over influenced by Shakespeare thereby nothing original happened for 200 years in literature.

Someone might think here that Emerson is undermining the importance of the books, rather he further explains the impact of books in the hard times of any true Genius, any true Scholar. Books serve as the best companion anyone can have in their idle time, they are the kick starters of every genius mind, they are there to initiate the spark in every creative mind but not to drive it.      

“When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men’s transcripts of their readings. But when the intervals of darkness come, as come they must,—when the soul seeth not, when the sun is hid and the stars withdraw their shining,—we repair to the lamps which were kindled by their ray, to guide our steps to the East again, where the dawn is.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson gives the examples of some great English poets like Chaucer, Marvell, Dryden. He says that even after passage of many long years the ability of these poets to connect with our minds is really fascinating which is possible only because of the books. This also means that these ideas of poets wee futuristic, visionary enough that they are relevant after hundreds of years. Books are the best option to carry this vision.

Innocence of Knowledge and Awareness of Media

Emerson warns every person of the books they are consuming. He explains this with the analogy of survival of human body. The very innocent nature of human mind and the knowledge both can be conditioned with any thought from the book leading to the fact from the book to become the ultimate truth for the person. Emerson wants everyone to not accept the truth of the books for the truth of life. He wants every true scholar to become a selective reader and follower of the books. Emerson explains that the books display only that part which its creator wanted to show to the readers, this also means that whatever we are reading is just a small part of the authors life not the whole. Thus, when a powerful person, scholar (mentally and physically) encounters books, he holds the power to materialize, personify any and every thought from the books. It is the skill of a true scholar to selectively find the ideas and the versions of the truth, instead of going full on literal and thereby accepting them as truth. In simple words, Emerson expects every reader to get the hold of the ideas and inspirations from the books and not blindly follow them word to word. A genius, a true scholar thus knows what to pick from every book.

In our daily lives today, books are not the only source of information. Emerson’s warnings have become more real in today’s times. We must understand that every information we get from media is not a knowledge hence we must be selective and aware about the content we are consuming. Emerson was not highlighting only the academic noise of knowledge in schools and colleges; he was also highlighting the overall noise of information around us in our daily routine. This noise has become more effective in our generation through social media, portable/digital media, user selective media. Beware of the media you are consuming, try to find the pattern in your content and break out of it. Otherwise, your “curated content” will keep on narrowing your perspective.  

Building on this Emerson shifts his focus to the educational institutes. He clarifies that though books and learnings from the past are inseparable and important part of learning and educational institute have done a great work in executing this part, they have completely exploited this part to worse extents. Educational institutions have also established a business on these tools of knowledge to grow rich in materialistic forms. Hence, Emerson also reminds the policymakers to realize the truth that even single part of the absolute truth, the knowledge is powerful enough break this whole commercialized system of education.

Emerson also predicted the future that if the educational systems keep on commercializing the book following, past following, mugging/ cramming up the books culture, create an assembly line of scholars and professionals, even though these colleges will have fat bank balances, funds, even though they will grow richer and richer, their importance/ quality of the education they provide will go on degrading; these institute will lose their public importance.

And look what is happening with most of the education systems of our generation.        

Action Speaks Louder Than Words (and that is not the end of the story)

“There goes in the world a notion that the scholar should be a recluse, a valetudinarian, —as unfit for any handiwork or public labor as a penknife for an axe. The so-called “practical men” sneer at speculative men, as if, because they speculate or see, they could do nothing.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson never fell short while explaining the importance and power of new ideas, knowledge they create and the legacy they leave behind for future generations. But he made sure that people wont’s god worship the ideas they have. He wants every thinker to execute their ideas, convert them into actions.

“(The action) It is the raw material out of which the intellect molds her splendid products. A strange process too, this by which experience is converted into thought, as a mulberry-leaf is converted into satin. The manufacture goes forward at all hours.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson has identified one common trait that scholars of all generations hold. All scholars, intellectuals are known to be recluse, always in their own mind and there is nothing wrong about it. The ideas sometimes can carry them far away from the reality. Sometimes new and original ideas are so rare and powerful that one has to embark on a solo journey to discover them completely. One has to understand when this pursuit over-influences their mind, it takes a toll over their minds. The separation of our intangible mind from reality eventually has a bad ending. The neuroticism, the inability to communicate such feelings to others, conversion of such thoughts to some extreme explosive actions and consequences thereafter are one part of intellectual society. The mad geniuses, super smart but cunning villains in our pop culture and real-life stories of smart criminals, smugglers, murderers, sociopaths are the exact reflection of such people in today’s society.

Emerson wants every scholar to come out of their overthinking and the comforts of the world of their own ideas. Emerson knew and made others aware that anything is possible in your own world and as it is created by your own ideas, you get attached to it. You will never want it to disappear and will avoid to test them with the reality. This goes on and on and your mind will be full of many new ideas. They will keep on expanding but they will never become real.

Emerson wants every true scholar to test their ideas in reality and break out of the comforts of the world in their own minds.

“Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom. The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action passed by, as a loss of power.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson gives advice to future scholars in advance that this fascination of their own beautiful ideas, the comforts of the worlds in their minds may seem beautiful but it is addictive and never-ending- it’s like analysis paralysis leading to inaction.

We always fear that our beautiful ideas will cease to exist when tested with reality, it feels like a part of us is died and deep thinkers, over-thinkers can connect with this on different level. But one must also accept that the death of such non-real ideas is one integral part of the process of the discovery of absolute truth. Death of “wishful thinking” is also one important aspect of every true scholar rather every person’s character development. Emerson instructs that this process of testing ideas through real and concrete actions will be boring, more problem creating, anger generating-frustrating but one has to endure through them. One must not lose the opportunity to test their ideas in reality.

“(Action)…It is the raw material out of which the intellect molds her splendid products. A strange process too, this by which experience is converted into thought, as a mulberry-leaf is converted into satin. The manufacture goes forward at all hours.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson gives the example of our childhood events and how they made us who we are today. We are what we did and what happened to us in our childhood. We are not what we used to think in our childhood. (Like how most of us wanted to become a Pilot and Astronaut and look how many of us really want that today).

The ideas not converted to action lose their existence in two ways. Either (and most of the times) they change instantly into new idea, something else due to their fickle nature or they get rotten in a corner of our mind thereby indirectly disfiguring our adult mind. It is very interesting observation by Emerson; he identifies that our behavior, habits, inspirations are rooted in our childhood. Further on and most importantly Emerson points out that it is not our whole childhood that gets carried over in our adult behavior, habits, inspirations; it is the events and our actions, our responses to events in our childhood that shape us in future. Childhood thoughts, ideas converted into actions are actually etched on our personality forever. And only thoughts and ideas limited to our minds are lost forever. Same is happening with us every day, it is just that Emerson makes everyone aware of the importance of converting our ideas into actions by presenting a very intimate and common example.

“The new deed is yet a part of life, -remains for a time immersed in our unconscious life.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson puts one excellent insight in front of everyone. The actions and not ideas become the subconscious part of our life. These actions solely initiate the cascades of event which are always unfolding in our current life events.

“Cradle and infancy, school and playground, the fear of boys, and dogs, and ferules, the love of little maids and berries, and many another fact that once filled the whole sky, are gone already; friend and relative, profession and party, town and country, nation and world, must also soar and sing.”      

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Dictionary of Life

“Of course, he who has put forth his total strength in fit actions has the richest return of wisdom.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

The great thing about Emerson’s persona is that not only he instructed the scholars but he also gave the directions to start from. Emerson makes everyone aware of the types of actions they can take and their consequences. He wants everyone to understand the nature of outcomes from the action we will take to bring our ideas into reality. As actions will be driven by ideas, there will be times when actions following one wrong idea will not yield good and favorable results. Some actions will feel worthless, unidirectional, single faced, niche and they will only reveal their nature after we see their results. So, does that mean that if actions are more important than ideas and if actions are anyways most of the times going to be worthless then why actions should be one important part of a true scholar? After all most of the times, they are not proving the point of their superiority over the ideas. At least ideas give some type of comfort to our mind.

Emerson says that a true scholar’s life is not only about thinking beyond limits and taking actions on it. If thinking and acting on them was the only purpose of life then everyone would have craved for acting on the ideas which is not the reality. Systematic thinking and bringing them into reality through actions is just one dimension of being a true scholar. Before being true scholars, we are human beings, we have lives.

“If it were only for a vocabulary, the scholar would be covetous of action. Life is our dictionary.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Actions, Pasts, Ideas are part of that bigger life. Hence, Emerson focuses ono living the life, which is possible through having different types of experiences, be mindful of each and every experience in your life. Hence the concepts of Actions, Pasts, Ideas are just “vocabulary”, where life is bigger than that, life is a “dictionary”.

In simple words, the things that we are trying to learn and think beyond and bring them into the reality are a just part of bigger reality that is life. So, Emerson wants every true scholar “to be alive” to live through the life they have. Emerson wants everyone to have a life relevant scholastic aptitude, which anyone can have (though it sounds “sophisticated”)

Getting things done for proving worth of ideas is not the final job of a true scholar. Life is bigger than ideas and their execution.

The Great Principle of Undulation in Nature and Influence of Popular Opinions

When Emerson suggests every true scholar to live a live of rich experiences, be aware of the reality around them – he gives everyone the idea of one confusion that will always tempt them to have a bias. Emerson says that the “Polarity” is the law of nature.

In his own words-

“…inspiring and expiring of the breath; in desire and satiety; in the ebb and flow of the sea; in day and night; in heat and cold;”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

These extremes in every natural phenomenon creates a wave, an “undulation” in nature. Which is one inseparable part of life thereby every human soul. Every idea, every action a scholar takes will have a wavy nature, there will be some part of idea, of actions which will dominate over their opposite one for a time. Emerson says that actions, ideas, knowledge, thinking these are just the resources for a true scholar. Even after losing these resources a true scholar will not lose his character, he will not lose who he is, his identity.

“Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary.”  

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson establishes this to warn every true scholar and remind their real pursuit in life. Emerson through this wants to communicate that there will be times when a scholar will have temptation to follow a popular opinion, he will feel bad for not getting proper recognition for his/her achievements. Things will happen which will force them to give up on their lively pursuits, to give up on living for some materialistic means. In such moments, a true scholar should never give up on his character.

“Character is higher than intellect.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson actually removed a fine line which used to exist between the uneducated, working class and the studying class or so-called scholastic class – educated class. Emerson clarified that a scholar is not the one who joins one institution, secures a diploma/ degree, attends office, decides actions, creates policies and drives the “less intellectual” life around him. What is important to become a true scholar is “the character” – “the attitude”. Every person can have that; hence Emerson instructs every scholar to have that intellectual humility and not get fooled by the popular opinions of “white collar jobs” of scholars. He indirectly establishes that people who did not come from the system have more power to create a disruption in the system, to create a new and positive change in the system.

“Not out of those on whom systems of education have exhausted their culture comes the helpful giant to destroy the old or to build the new, but out of unhandselled savage nature; out of terrible Druids and Berserkers come at last Alfred and Shakespeare.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

This really holds true in today’s times too. There are many proofs from famous startups, fortune companies, literary and art schools that formal education is not the indicator of creative disruption in our society. Revolutionary people were never dependent on the systems to create new ideas and bring about new change. Thus, Emerson’s age-old ideas resonate with the facts of today.

A true scholar according to Emerson is the one who has this intellectual humility; who understands that having and creating great ideas, executing them to reality is just a part of life. A true scholar is not limited to thinking, executing and learning only. A true scholar has the purpose of living a life beyond the system created; a true scholar being an active part of his society and can come from any part of it. This idea itself is very powerful.

There will one last – third part on how Emerson closes his ideas, requests, guidance to the scholars of every generations.

– End of Part 2 –

Read Part 1 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World from here.

Read Part 2 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World from here.

Read Part 3 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World from here.

  1. The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The American Scholar – The Scholar, the Nature, the Origins and the Legacy of Knowledge

Part-1 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World

The success of any society can be easily attributed to the success of its young generation thereby the institutions that develop them. There will be some moments in everyone’s life where we might have questioned the failure of the education systems from where we “passed out”. We realize at these moments how mechanical the systems have become. Even after realizing this fact, we are always on a search for a tag, a dream career, a dream job to which we wish stick forever till death (sadly, in some cases that is the only option). There are many examples where people in their last moments wished that they would have done things differently, explored some new ventures, dared for some things and would have taken that risk but now they don’t have enough time to do so. The idea of a death with no regrets is strong in today’s times; ideas like YOLO (You Only Live Once), FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), FIRE (Financially Independent to Retire Early) are the examples of this ideology, there is nothing wrong in it. It is the result of what recent generations have experienced. Also, this is not new in history. After a horrible black death in Europe people appreciated the value of life and their body which is always reflected through the arts, literature and creative ventures from the renaissance era.  

The thing is that when a large group of people try to follow an ideology on a significantly larger scale, there comes a time of saturation, a plateau of losing momentum which sustains forever and becomes the habit of generation, a trait of that generation. We lose the sense of the processes in order to achieve some short-lived pleasures, short living achievements. And after achieving that thing we lose the sense of our being, although there are many exceptions, there always are. The main feeling of clueless-ness after achieving something is the exact reflection of our one-dimensional pursuits for something, it is the proof that in the pursuit of something valuable to us we lose the importance and intricacies of the process we are going through. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay called “The American Scholar” made an attempt to move people out of their immediate achievements of separation from the English Government and inspired them to create something new, create and value the processes for building strong future generations and deep knowledge of nature. Even though this essay was more relevant for the American generation which was largely dependent on their English legacy – the one from which they were newly separated, it still remains relevant because of the crispness of truth it holds for every new generation of humanity. The speech/ essay will always transcend the understandings of every generation.       

Ralph Waldo Emerson- one of the greatest philosophers, essayists, writer once gave a lecture in an American University which still seems relevant even after the passage of almost 185 years. The thoughts are so absolute that they have stood the test of time. The lecture or speech called “The American Scholar” by Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the important parts of English literature which highly focuses on the necessity and importance of originality of thoughts, their implementations through actions and the legacy/ virtues a person should leave behind for future generations.

The lecture is famously segregated into three parts. Students of literature follow following partitions to understand this essay.

  1. The origin of knowledge, science and the influences on a scholar
  2. The responsibilities/ duties of a scholar
  3. The daring to create the knowledge relevant to the time

Instead of splitting this into conventional parts I will try to touch the core of Emerson’s ideas for its relevance and importance for our generation.

Origins of “the jobs” in society and The Man of Thinking

Emerson in the starting immediately establishes how the youth has become comfortable on the older foundations, infrastructures left behind by their rulers. They are just feasting on the remains of what has been left behind after victory. Emerson uses the words as “Sluggard intellect” as in the intellectuals who have become comfortable with what they have to highlight this fact. He further calls their jobs as “the apprenticeship to the leanings of the other land” to signify how there is no excitement for the breakthroughs throughout this new born nation. Every scholar has assigned themselves a tag of their “jobs” – the scholar word is not limited to the students only. Emerson is calling scholar to everyone performing their skills in a mechanical way – with some donated, left-over resources from their rulers. The message is not restricted to students only, Emerson is actually summoning every working class of people. He wants the youth of the nation to come out of the mundane tasks and the mechanical nature of the work they are doing as a scholar. Emerson wants the youth to come out of this calmness, boring mentality of doing what is assigned to venture into the endless possibilities the nature provides. He explains the unbounded nature of “The Nature”, the origin of society existing in it and the ways to come out of the mundane-ness of the jobs in this society to evolve further. For this, he starts with the origin of society and “the jobs”, “the tags” and dehumanizing, “mechanicalizing” of the field of knowledge.

Emerson puts some light on the purpose of creation of different labors, different fields of knowledge. Emerson explains that in order to function properly a man was divided into many men with certain skills, domain expertise which made the society multifaceted. But, the process of separation was exploited to extreme where it lost its real purpose. The purpose was to handle and comprehend the boundless nature but it was lost to mere sustenance and separation of humanity into materialistic classes.  

“…Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The fable implies that the individual, to possess himself, must sometimes return from his own labor to embrace all the other laborers. But, unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilled into drops, and cannot be gathered. The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk and strut about so many walking monsters, -a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

The division and high focus on labor has divided society into so many parts that it has become difficult to bring them together to unite the society, the humanity. Emerson’s analogy of fountain is so powerful here. Not just American society but the whole world now has separated to such extent of cultures, borders, colors, races, histories, faiths, religions, ideologies, prejudices, resources that it is really difficult to bring them together for a greater common cause. Emerson wants everyone to lose these borders, these tags mentally in order to understand the boundless nature.

Emerson expects every person who is actually a scholar but associated themselves to a tag, a job a profession to strip off of their titles and expand their vision beyond their assigned skill. He wants everyone to transcend their own designated skill.

In today’s world, jobs, titles, posts are killing the people for who they are. No wonder we worry of AI taking over our future jobs. As AI is efficient and fast in doing such “tagged” jobs, the “repetitive” jobs many people who are doing these mundane jobs fear that AI will take over the humanity and before humanity their jobs in future. We forget that the knowledge from which we created these boring jobs is actually boundless. It is our over-simplification of life journeys and our negligence towards the process of living for the sake of the comforts of life that we decided to stick to such mechanical nature of our jobs. He gives very simple example of a farmer – how a man with knowledge of different fields of knowledge like hydrology, geography, meteorology, biology, economics, finance, mechanics, technology got converted to mere a man of profession.

“He sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond, and sinks into the farmer, instead of Man on the farm.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

He calls this process as “the Metamorphosis” with similar cases with trader, priest, attorney, mechanic, sailor.

“In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state he is Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson wants for everyone to come out of this oversimplification of our lives. Hence, he establishes the difference between “a thinker” and “a Man thinking”. Before becoming anything possible every scholar must understand that they are a man first, a man from the boundless nature.        

“Is not indeed every man a student, and do not all things exist for the student’s behoof?”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

You should understand that though at the very start of his speech Emerson addresses the American Scholars by calling them so, it is very wise of him to state every man a student, a scholar at this exact moment. This is where his speech becomes open to every man. Though the address was given to the American students, Emerson wants every man to understand what he is trying to convey through this speech. Here, Emerson’s speech has actually transcended the boundaries of a country and time. Emerson worries that during this powerful time of every person as a scholar, the scholar mostly chooses the wrong side of knowledge that is to stick to some tag, profession and loses the privilege of vast possibilities which might have granted by the same multifaceted knowledge from its source “the Nature”.

The Nature- The idea of classification and the origin of knowledge

The curiosity to understand the nature is the origin of knowledge. Every person wants to assign some value to the things happening around him which are reflected through nature around him.

“There is never a beginning, there is never an end, to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God, but always circular power returning into itself.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

“…Nature hastens to render account of herself to the mind.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

In order to understand each and every phenomenon, the “young mind” assigned some value to them and then classified them; Joined things into one when seemed similar.  The concept of “individuality” in the early scholar actually segregated knowledge into different parts. The words “Diminishing anomalies” by Emerson explain how a paradox at the end of every branch of knowledge gave rise to completely new field of knowledge.  This development of new field of knowledge helped to connect some really remote fields of knowledge. For example, see the revolution in physics happened after Einstein explained and proved the theory of relativity. Also, most importantly the quantum mechanics and the problems about the nature of our reality which itself is paradoxical in its behavior for us today, when solved will connect many dots, far more and completely different fields of knowledge which seem very distant today.

“…science is nothing but the finding of analogy, identity, in the most remote parts”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson highlights the purpose of classifying things in nature was to handle the chaos of the events. Classification created a pivot around the human mind which enabled systematic segregation and relationship development to understand the nature. Use of the term “The law of human mind” actually shows that we have never understood the nature for what it is, we have developed a system of knowledge to organize the chaos where some of the things are making sense to us and the things which don’t make sense is the challenge for today and tomorrow. The challenge is being handed over to the men of science who will try to connect these remote dots.

“He shall see that nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part. One is seal and one is print. Its beauty is the beauty of his own mind. Its laws are the laws of his own mind.”

The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson

The analogy of the seal and print is such a beautiful analogy given by Emerson to the nature and the soul. Emerson takes a spiritual point of view to understand the nature. He explains that though the soul and nature are “boundless/ center-less”, the nature becomes limited and bounded to the extent of the bounds of the mind. Emerson says indirectly that certain thing won’t exist in nature until you ask nature for its existence. Thus, if it is created by your mind, if it is present in your mind and you try to establish it by studying yourselves then you will definitely establish the same thing in the nature. If it is not in you then it definitely is not existing in nature. Your limitations of the understanding of yourselves will be the limitations of the nature around you. Hence, if you widen your understanding, become limitless then only you will understand the limitless form of the nature.

Max Planck one of the greatest physicists of all times and who came far later after Emerson had similar opinions about the nature of our reality and the limits of our understanding about it.

“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”

Max Planck

Emerson thus fuses the two distant dots called “Know Thyself” and “Study nature” into one based on this spiritual foundation. Reading, listening these sentences and realizing this idea itself is so powerful. This also shows that Emerson himself was a master of connecting different and distant dots in the fields of knowledge. No wonder he was successful in actually defining the origin of human understanding. In this way he recalls the importance and significance of nature on a mind of a scholar.

-End of Part 1 –

There is a Part 2 to understand how Emerson further suggests the “potent” tools, “the weapons” and responsibilities which come with them to really transcend the boundaries of our existence and become a true scholar. We will see that in next post.

Our identity is one inseparable part of our existence. It is the very first pivot that we have in this boundless existence. The name given by our parents/relatives symbolizes the very first dimension of our identity. Then we build upon it as we grow. Many factors like our family, the people around us, their and our financial conditions, their and our emotional states, their and our habits, inspirations and what not directly and indirectly gives us many facets. They become part of our identity. As we grow up in most of the cases our jobs, professions become our identity. Actually, we are conditioned right from our childhood to become doctors, engineers, social workers, bankers, brokers, pilots, writers, dancers, teachers, firefighters and what not. Our job becomes the largest chunk of our life and our identity. These identities which we hold for our lives are mostly rooted in our young times, college days and the immediate days after we leave the educational institutions. No doubt that these are the turning points for most of us. That is why the success of educational systems and institutions is very important in the development of the whole society. And, Emerson tried to question the materialistic identity these systems granted at such turning points to the young scholars of his time. But as history repeats itself same is the case with our recent generations. This is where the absolute ideas, the great wisdom of Ralph waldo Emerson stand the test of time.

There is more to come…

Read Part 1 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World from here.

Read Part 2 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World from here.

Read Part 3 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ideas of a True Scholar for the Modern World from here.

  1. The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kantara – Breaking The Illusion of Materialistic Possession

Almost everyone is aware of the impact created by Rishabh Shetty’s blockbuster “Kantara”. The movie is an epitome of the huge power that cinema holds. Not only content/ story-line but the whole ensemble Kantara carries is a lifetime dream of every true movie maker. The movie stands out on cast, characters, cinematography, music, action, emotions, the balance between fact and fiction and what not. Not only as a great entertainer but also as a conveyor of the cultural heritage we Indians hold – Kantara shines out. The movie can truly become the flag bearer of both the Indian Movie Industry and the Indian heritage/ Indian culture. This will not be a movie review or the explanation of the story or the connections Kantara carries to the real life events or traditions. . We will try to find the hidden layer Kantara carries which is common in our very human nature.

The following content will be more relevant to those who have watched Kantara already and may be spoiling to those who haven’t.  

Movie Poster of Rishab Shetty’s “Kantara” (2022)

Kantara- the mystical forest and the folklore

As the literal meaning goes, the story is created in the forest in order to carry the suspense and create a curiosity in the minds of the characters of the story and the audience. And this mystical nature of the forest is effectively used in Kantara to show what faith is actually made up of. Faith, I would say here is used to understand the limits of our own existence and respectful fear of the unknown. There is a moment when the faith of people is questioned through questioning the existence of Panjurli – The Demigod, which is answered through the sudden disappearance of the person/ performer who carries the demigod through him.

The thing about folklores is that they lose some obvious and vital details as they are passed from one generation onto the next generation. When repeated enough most of the details are lost but the core of the folklore remains the same. This loss of details and the loss of information in the story actually makes it a great folklore. This also creates the feeling of irrelevance with the current generations which leads to doubts of what could have actually happened.

Faith becomes the ultimate tool to convey the unknown nature of the unknown- the one which cannot be interpreted or understood with the current understandings we carry. Faith is responsible for the livelihood of the villagers in Kantara and the same faith (in a reverse and negative way) is also responsible for the sad endings in the family of the landlords.

The evolution of real story of the first meet of the King and the Panjurli to the folklore creates faith in villagers but at the same time creates arrogance in the generations of the landlords.

The revisions of the same story – History repeats itself

To understand the complete world of Kantara we need to have some pivot in the story. The four Panjurli – holy demigods are the best pivot to explain the transition of folklore through each generation. If the story of Kantara is understood through each generation of the persons carrying the holy presence of Panjurli, you will find that the story is actually repeating itself.

The real meaning from “Kantara” reveals itself when understood from four cycles

At first, the story is folklore hence one should accept that many details are lost in the handing over from generations. The idea folklore actually conveys is the urge of the king to spread his presence by claiming as large as possible part of land and have an authority over it. This pursuit is never ending as there is no end to greed of land which is the main reason for the insomnia the King suffers from. The pursuit of greed actually makes him to lose his peace of mind. The meet with the villagers and the Panjurli is the treaty of King with nature to settle down the turbulence in his mind. (Otherwise, which king would like to portray himself as the defeated one in his own folklore) The resistance for acquisition of villagers from the forest and the unrest due this resistance to the king are the real part which gets lost from the folklore during its evolution. The very first demigod of the story solves this problem and carries the symbol of the eternal promise between the protector and the consumers of the land.

The next demigod carrier is Shiva’s father where again due to the inherent nature of landlord’s son (who will be the next protector of the land) questions the treaty, the promise by questioning the presence of the demigod. The cycle of establishing explicit ownership is again repeated here, but ends in bad way. The King at first is smart and humble enough to accept his defeat against the very nature which created him but the modern son of landlord misses the point by taking the folklore literally. Hence, the reason Shiva’s father had to prove the presence of God in a mystical way. (If one thinks deeply enough and for those who still don’t want to accept the explanation of mystical disappearance there is one way to explain what could have actually happened. Shiva’s father sacrificed his life to the unknown and cruel animals of the forest in order to prove the presence of the unknown. The landlord’s son anyway could have died of natural death but the events of disappearance of Shiva’s father would never allow or put enough further to question the villager’s faith. Which also proves the point and does not create any contradiction.)

The next demigod carrier is Guruva where there is already one landlord called Devendra Suttooru. Devendra is also as smart as the ancestral King but is cunning enough to fool the innocent and forgiving holy demigod. In addition to this, the Forest officer Murali also thinks that he can establish control over the forest by using the government power. The beautiful thing to understand that the situation depicted this time is very complicated hence Shiva’s influence also adds indirect presence of the demigod in the story. Where the demigods share their characteristics in two different persons. Guruva officially represents the innocent and honest side of the demigod thereby resisting the authority of landlord Devendra in a soft manner and on the other hand Shiva already carries the honest, innocent but strong and dominating side of demigod Panjurli and sometimes like Guliga. (One must understand that Guliga only presents himself when the landlord’s intentions and acts become clear)

So, two cycles of the repeating story we are watching simultaneously in the movie in detail. Where in the end, people with the desire to control the nature either lose their lives or lose their intention of authority and develop the respect for the creator.

The point of highlighting the four repeating cycles in the Kantara is that even though each generation in every cycle has enough knowledge of what is right and wrong, even though they have knowledge of what has happened before, most of them try to challenge/ overthrow the past learnings in spite of knowing their consequences. I think, this is human nature. Even though we have done progress from the caves to the mars and solar system through hundred maybe thousands of the generations, some of the fundamental personal, societal problems are always repeating in every generation. Which is why such problems though are already solved remain unsolved for each generation.

History is never antiquated, because humanity is always fundamentally the same.

Walter Rauschenbusch

Illusion of authority, possession and ownership

All four cycles of repeating the histories confirm one consistent human trait that is the authority or ownership of something. At first, the king expects to own as many lands as possible thereby landing in misery. Then the modern son of landlord thinks that whatever land there is his own by ancestry and he should enjoy the perks of it. This also has a bad ending. The next generation one is more evolved and actually addresses two aspects of authority. One is the ownership of the possession of materialistic goods and the another one the possession of power to do anything and control everything.

You will see that the landlord Devendra Suttooru has greed for his “so called” ancestral land but is cunning enough to figure out different and unconventional ways to acquire it. But this ultimately ends in him exploiting the limits of the patience and innocent nature of the demigods. He fails to realize real power of the respect, authority, guardianship villagers thereby the demigods had granted him.

The interesting and mostly unnoticed one is the lust of Murali for the power of authority he would hold over the forest. You need to understand that Murali is Deputy Range Forest Officer. The main Range Forest Officer is not there to control the government matters.  Now, Murali has full chance to use and implement his power and enjoy the perks of it. That is why he is seen beating the villagers who present him their hunt in order to project who has the real power here. The arrogance or strict nature he carries with his staff and villagers is not only because he is a top officer, it is also because he wants to present is power dominance. You will see that when Murali visits Devendra Suttooru, he keeps all the gifts offered and also establishes that he as a government representative will not shake hands with devendra. Murali objecting the traditions of the Bhoota Kola further highlights that the power of authority government has given him enables him to control everything according to his desires. The initial intentions of Murali and Devendra are nothing but the same- the intentions of authority and intentions of possession.

The power of government authority that Murali carries
Rishab Shetty’s “Kantara” (2022)

The exploiters in each of the cycles – The King, The Modern landlord, Devendra Suttooru and Murali forgot that the things they are trying to claim actually don’t belong to them. These things don’t even belong to the villagers of the forest. They belong to the nature who is just allowing them to use them for their existence. The faith of the King and changes in Murali in the final stages makes us aware of breaking their illusion.

The King carried the lands and he was not at peace with himself, Murali even after having government authority faced death and hardships, modern landlord/ Devendra Suttooru having lordship and respect of the villagers faced bad consequences. They thought that the things which were handed to them as a duty belonged to them and exploited them for their own benefit which has no limits and exactly this degraded them. It is only with the villagers you will find that the use of minimal means and resources actually represents the respect for the one who offers everything. This is seen as a reality in their lifestyles and symbolically shown in the Bhoota Kola.

There is also one more interesting illusion of ownership which is Shiva’s ownership on himself.

Acceptance of the truth- the liberation

The ownership of Shiva is multifaceted and hence deserves special explanation. You have to understand that the nonchalant nature, the careless attitude of Shiva is not because of not having a father figure. Rather his mother is depicted more capable of filling that gap. The real reason of Shiva’s careless attitude is because of the life he will enjoy having. The sudden disappearance of his father into the mystical forest and not being able to find his body has deep impact on the initial character of Shiva. Shiva thinks that once he accepts himself as a demigod carrier for Bhoota Kola, there are huge chances of him losing himself from the body thereby distancing from the pleasures of living a life. Shiva fears that just like his father he will disappear into nothing without enjoying the life to wildly extents. Shiva completely wants to own his body, his life and hence also exploits this ownership. That is the exact reason you will find Shiva doing unholy activities like forbidden boar hunting, trees cutting. Shiva thinks that he will easily run away from the holy responsibility by doing such activities.

Shiva’s degrading activities ensure that he will never become the holy carrier.
Rishab Shetty’s “Kantara” (2022)

If you observe the character of our protagonist Shiva carefully, you will realize that even before accepting himself as a carrier of Panjurli and Guliga, he demonstrates all of their characteristics. He is the only person whom villagers will approach when they are questioned about their existence in the forest and the use of the resources available in it. You must understand that his cousin Guruva (who is the carrier of the holy demigods by then) should be the one whom villagers should actually approach but that is not happening in the story. Someone would say that Shiva carries the blood of his father who was the previous Panjurli and hence people believe in him but that is not the case. People already believe in Shiva because he is the only one who has demonstrated all the characteristics of the protector and has the guts to confront the unknown amongst all in the village.

If you remove the Shiva from the initial parts of the Kantara, you will realize that it was very easy for the landlord to fool the villagers to acquire the forest lands, it was really easy for forest officer Murali to use the power of government to bring forest under his control in his absence. Only the presence of Shiva makes the intentions of landlord and the forest officer to last longer in the test of time. Shiva was already the Holy Panjurli for his generation even though Guruva was carrying the godly presence and even before people and he himself realized this.

When Shiva finally bears his father’s torch and understands the ultimate vision of the creator
Rishab Shetty’s “Kantara” (2022)

It is at the end of the story Shiva has to accept the possession (rather directly gets possessed) of Guliga thereby understanding the ultimate fact that not even his body is owned by him. His body belongs to nature, the unknown and the greatest one who remains at the end of every cycle, at the end of everything. Shiva as a Panjurli at the end of the story is not because last Panjurli – his cousin Guruva is dead; no one is there to carry the tradition further. It is only because Shiva accepts the truth that the body in which he exists is owned by nature and not him.

The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.

Albert Einstein

That is why you will find Shiva uniting with his father in the final pursuit of real freedom – liberation at the end of the story. The real freedom for Shiva becomes renouncing his body, his materialistic way of existing. This is the real takeaway of the story. Every main character in Kantara is behind owning things whereas the reality is that nothing belongs to anyone. They are just allowed by nature to use the things and the authority for their own existence. Renouncing the illusion of owning everything, renouncing the feeling of being entitled for everything and accepting the nature of reality thereby existing humbly, sustainably, harmoniously with and within it is the real liberation. This is what Kantara represents- the humbling nature of reality, the nature and the extents of what we can know- what we can never know.

“Possession of material riches, without inner peace, is like dying of thirst while bathing in a lake. If material poverty is to be avoided, spiritual poverty is to be abhorred! It is spiritual poverty, not material lack, that lies at the core of all human suffering.”

– Paramahansa Yogananda