Monday, November 07, 2005

The diya

"Most of the times, we take things for granted. We never care to understand how things happen and never bother to attempt to metaphorize and learn from them".

The above insight occurred to me today, looking at the earthen lamp (diya or deepam) and the flickering light at the end of a cotton wick soaked in oil.

It surprised me to note that the cotton wick did not burn itself when all the oil in the lamp was used for the light. I will bet that cotton and oil are both, inflammable. But oil in itself cannot burn. Dry cotton, in itself, catches fire in a jiffy. But when one soaks the cotton in oil and makes a lamp out of it, all the oil gets burnt but finally the cotton remains, untouched, unburnt.

Now, for the metaphorizing, I will liken the cotton wick to the 'soul' and the oil to the 'body'. The physical body reduces and burns itself, through the soul, for the light called 'LIFE'. After the lamp is made empty, if one pours oil into it and lights the diya, the light will be visible again. In the same way, another incarnation (janma) uses the same soul till the final goal of humanity (for that matter, any life form) is achieved. And the final goal is the liberation of the soul from the circle of births and deaths and meet with the cosmos.

(Note: I feel more confused now, after writing the above paragraphs. But this confusion is desirable, as only a stirred mind is looking for answers.

Perhaps this is how evolution works - an impulse sparking a portion of the mind, which had been untouched so far, thereby awakening it and alongwith it, an awareness, anew.)

- Shyam Kurni (November 5th 2005)