The illusion of life

The Hindu scriptures (Geeta) say that everything is an illusion. I come to appreciate this fact even more whenever I paint. Everything we see is a game of light and shadow the sun paints for us every day. At night, everything is the same color black. Then we have to resort to our memories to comprehend what we touch. The world becomes nothing each night. Or when we sleep, we are not conscious of what is happening around us. Our lives become nothing each night.

There is also a notion of reality in the Geeta that I do not understand yet. The age old method of ascertaining something is by double checking with someone else. When two people agree on the form of a tree that they see, then we might suspect that there is some truth behind it. There is a reason why the next morning the view outside your window looks more or less the same. My sense of reality is based on this continuity. My connections to my past and to other
people which do not dependent solely on my own memories may be based on what is real.

On the other hand, even if nothing is real, I am glad I have company in this dream of life. I am glad these silly illusions of mine are validated by others. We wake up each morning to see what life has to offer. And one day we die and we are not trapped in this cycle anymore. The continuity is over. But then some say there is heaven and others say there is rebirth. Oh well!

Maya Mohsin Ahmed – archives:

• The distressed Indian farmer
• The Pathetic Academic Culture of Mangaluru
• The Many Pitfalls of Holding on to Money
• Why on Earth did we agree that Religious Conversions are Wrong?
• In the Land of Coconut Trees
• Mangaluru: The murky land deals of Karnataka
• The Sad Economic Disparity of Genders
• Mangaluru: Misuse of Scheduled Castes and Tribes (prevention of atrocities) Act
• Stop Domestic Violence