Our own Garden of Eden

I am usually lost all the time, even when I am defending a point of view in a philosophical debate. No moment whatsoever manages to hold my attention for long. As a result, I left a recent debate halfway even though I had lot to talk about. So I’ll continue here…

Our Consciousness has made us aware of two predominant entities – Mind and Soul, which together define the essence of our existence. And if you ponder over it, you will realize, both these entities have contrasting and conflicting attributes.

Soul is like a wise big brother. It always knows what is right. It’s that inner voice that is non-violent but keeps nagging you all the time. It’s the most disciplined and unbiased one. It never backs you up when you do something wrong. That’s what is called Guilt. That’s soul pointing out your mistakes. It also guides you through most of the discomforting situations of life. That’s your Righteousness.

It’s responsible for all the selfless good actions you do, such as loving and caring. Soul, by its definition is not finite and definitely not just limited to you. It’s universal and is what connects you with the other being. Since, its formless there’s no boundary separating your soul from that of a person next to you. This awareness leads you to Humanity, for no life form is designed to do harm to self.

Soul is also very patient with you. You often act differently, in spite of guilt, gut feeling or instincts – call it whatever you want. But Soul, will never judge you. It stays with you and continues to guide you whether or not you are willing to follow.

Mind on the other hand, is quite the opposite. It’s demanding. That’s where your ambitions originate from. That’s what contributes to your materialistic approach to life. It’s a knavish. It will never tell you that you are wrong. In stead, it will give you ample reasons to believe that people pointing fingers at you are actually wrong. That’s mind, always with an agenda and till its purpose is served, it will be nice to you no matter what you do.

Often, Mind guides you in opposite directions. That’s its two-facedness. When it realizes it’s hard to convince you to follow, it will simple change it’s course and follow you, pushing you further in the direction you have chosen. Reason is simple. Once it has gained your trust, it will then lure you in the direction you want.

Mind is a slave that has somehow gained power over you. Its only aim is to keep you so involved in immaterial things, that you never get a moment to discover your true nature. For when you do that, it causes your mind to cease. Probably, that’s what is termed as Enlightenment.

Now, when you examine these attributes of Soul and Mind deeply, you realize, these very set of attributes have been ascribed to God and Satan.

God, like Soul is ever present but never imposing. God never goes out of the way, to reveal itself, or convince you to do a certain act. Rather, it waits patiently for you to discover your own path.

Satan, on the other hand, is constantly luring towards thousand meaningless directions, all the time, pretending to be your most trusted confidant.

For this reason, I admire the people who walked the face of earth during genesis. They have so beautifully conceived the idea of God, Satan and Existence that it got engraved in the human consciousness till eternity.

They being the first inhabitants of the existence where exposed to all the cruel uncertainties of Nature and probably that’s what motivated them to offer some sort of comfort to the civilization that would follow them. They were wise enough to understand that the generations that would follow them will need some comfort to overcome the fear of uncertainty of existence.

For this reason, perhaps, they conceptualized the idea of God. And since no wisdom is complete without its polar contradiction, Satan was created too. And the inspirations to sketch out the characteristics of God and Satan, was instinctively taken from Soul and Mind the only entities, the ancestors had experienced.

However, like it always happens, messages often get lost in transit. The following generations overlooked the objective behind the concept and simply embraced the concept.

As a result, what you have today is two separate identities – God and Satan. You choose to idolize with one of them depending upon your personal inclination; and you spend your life impersonating the idol, following it wherever it leads you.

But what if the message what not about God and Satan. What if the simple message the forbearers of the planet wanted to convey was – refrain from the temptations of mind and follow your inner voice?

Probably, if we every try doing that, we will find our own Garden of Eden right where we stand.

~Shunyatha