Let's face it
You know you can not escape
You know it
You may create a hovel of your own
but your spirit has a tendency to grow
How will you curb it?
The fact is that
you are a human being
a homo sapiens
and it is your tendency to look beyond your physical existence....
Boy!!
you cannot escape.
the very essence of being a human being is the flight of the spirit. there is no need to curb it. the physical self does put some restrictions but the same physical self can be used to reach spiritual heights.
ReplyDeleteand you do say in your poem that the " spirit has a tendency to grow". well it will grow, especially more if there is an intelligent brain to support it. the main concern is to keep the spirit afloat.
so what do we do? if you consult the "upanishads", you will get to know the vedic philosophy that answers this dilemma.
the vedic philosophy revolves around the concept of "brahman". not the creator with four heads , neither the caste brahman... but the sanskrit word brah man. it says that everything is a part of brahman and everything IS brahman, brahman is everything. so your hand,, your eyes, your spirit, bin laden, the flea on the dog's body, everything is a part of brahman. so if you are at one with the universe where everything is a part of it,, and everything IS it, then there is no sense of right or wrong or morality. THAT is freedom.everything is divine. everything is brahman. in the "footnote to howl". ginsberg talks about the same thing.
FOOTNOTE TO HOWL :
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy!
The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand
and asshole holy!
Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is
holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an
angel!
The bum's as holy as the seraphim! the madman is
holy as you my soul are holy!
The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is
holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy!
Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy
Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cas-
sady holy the unknown buggered and suffering
beggars holy the hideous human angels!
Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks
of the grandfathers of Kansas!
Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop
apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana
hipsters peace & junk & drums!
Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy
the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the
mysterious rivers of tears under the streets!
Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the
middle class! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebell-
ion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!
Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria &
Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow
Holy Istanbul!
Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the
clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy
the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch!
Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the
locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina-
tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the
abyss!
Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours!
bodies! suffering! magnanimity!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent
kindness of the soul!
even nietzsche in " dead god" resonates similar ideas. so you see, there is no stopping for the soul because it is at one with creation. as far as the body is concerned, it follows social conventions. for any spiritual flight or achievement, destruction of the status quo is inevitable. the escape route is there , the only thing required is to take the steps toward it.
the spirit cannot be curbed, so the body must follow the spirit as long as it is alive. lives of all the iconoclasts, be it shelley, ginsberg or chaitanya mahaprabhu , have this common feature - they broke the status quo and achieved freedom for themselves and their followers. the only way is to not let the social conventions decide things for you. it is not easy.
the door of the hovel is open. all one has to do is to walk out of it. it is not easy. social conventions bind the body. but the spirit is free. the very essence of being a human being is this fight of the spirit. the body can only follow the flight. at the same time, the body can be used to help the spirit soar in the sky. then the body no longer remains an impediment. refer to the "upanishads', "dead god" by nietzsche and the "footnotes to howl" by ginsberg. ( i tried to quote them but the comment got too big to be posted.)
ReplyDeletebody is a tool for freedom. there are some pretty amazing things that this body can do. ( my earlier comment was better, but it wouldn't post, so i am pissed off right now and this is not my best comment. we can talk about this later. there are many things to be said about this.
it is true.. everything is holy.. the thing is that we cannot escape our spirituality.. that also involves the superego.. and it is formed by the culture and the society that is beyond our own self.. we cannot ignore it and we cannot escape into our own little selves.. our existence overflows beyond our bodies..
ReplyDeletewhy is this soul a boy? why can't it escape? who decides it can or not? Anyways is it necessary for it to escape? can't it just be a part of the body? Independent, with mind as it's best friend, working in tandem towards the achievement of the flight? To fulfill desires? To have new desires? Without being subdued? It's tough isn't it? But is it impossible?
ReplyDeleteO lord though plucked my soul out!
Take it away,
I can create another one,
from my mind,
unstoppable, unconquerable.
Better than what I had before.
it's not about escaping the limits of physical existence... it's about staying within the limits of our bodies and enjoy it to the fullest.. sometimes our superego makes it impossible to do what we want to do..
ReplyDeletesuper ego is our own part we can control it if we want
ReplyDeleteHey Pri..why cann't it be girl(in the last line)?? Why only boys get a chance to be heard..? girls remain unheard....
ReplyDelete