I was walking silently like all other people who were walking in row on the bridge. Bridge was narrow, paved with big rectangular slabs of granitic stones and side walls were fenced by heavy rods of iron. The most visible thing was glowing river of lava that was flowing underneath of bridge. The sky was dark with no stars at all. The red radiant lava was the only source of light. It was hot and humid but deep silence was heavier than anything else and I could feel the heaviness of silence on my heart. I was bathing in perspiration. My feeling was that most of the perspiration was not because of humidity and temperature but was because of pressure inside. I looked again to flyer that I got at the entrance of bridge. What was making me nervous was the point that, …..“Your destination will be decided by your desires and judgments.”…..
I tried to get help from people around me. I tapped on the shoulder of the man ahead of me, “Excuse me Sir!”… He didn’t show any response to my tapping. I became more anxious. I tapped him again at shoulder and asked again, this time by louder sound, “Excuse me Sir!!!”…The vibration was evident in my voice….. He didn’t move his body and just turned back his head…”Ye…ye..yes!!!!!” he replied. He was more anxious than me. His eyes were dim and his face color was reddish violet… I remembered the advice of a wise man, who says, “Do not ask for advice from those who are in trouble. Their judgments are not balanced.” I decided to not seek any help from him. Then I realized that all people were anxious like me. “ I am a geologist” I thought… and “geologists use the present to reconstruct past and use the past to predict the future”….I tried to remember from past events… I remembered the scene of subway train in NYC. Everybody was silent with heads down. I wasn’t able to read their mind. Are they thinking about something or it is the tradition that put your head down and be silent… It was disturbing for me that I wasn’t able to read the minds. It is a real weakness…… I decided to ask for ability to read the minds ….
The flyer was saying, “You are familiar with people of past and their destinies….. Your desires are judged by your wishes to live with particular people of past…. Ummm! That is a tricky and may be counterintuitive so I had to think deeply. “What about Kings?” I asked myself….It was natural that kings come first to my mind because they are highly praised for their fascinating destinies in human history. Truly the human history is mostly stories of kings… “Kings are kings because they are surround and supported by best people of their time.. so they are more in need of help than being able to help” I thought…
Next thing that come to my mind was actors. I know about actors almost next to kings. Hmmmm! “Actors! They perform writers’ ideas. They have creative observations but still need writers’ ideas to express their creativities and observations…….. so I need people with original ideas. “What about philosophers? The name that immediately came to my mind was that of Socrates. He was believing in his ideas to a level that he accepted to die for his ideas rather to refute them…….. More important than this, He was reading the minds of people by cross questioning. So, he was a trustworthy as well as a person with an ability that I wanted to have.
I became a little comfortable by getting a clear mind….. Bridge ended to a giant wooden gate that had many large gates. It was the gate of destiny. There were judges that asking people questions and assigning them guides to their destinies……
I approached the judge that called my name. “Did you make your mind? “ Asked the judge…. “Yes Sir! I want to meet Socrates!” I replied…. Judge looked into my eyes and asked again, “Why do you want to meet Socrates?”…. “I am curious to know, how a man with no possession, authority and physical beauty could challenge the authorities of his time?.... How could he stand the blames and pressures of those who were thinking that he is wrong? I want to know the sources of his inspirations and confidence…” I answered…. Judge argued, “But there is large time gap between you and Socrates?”…..”There is no gap between nature, though…” I answered… Judge pulled a box from under his table and handed it to me. Inside the box is your guide. It will lead you to Philosophers’ gate. Be careful! If you didn’t use the guide rightly, you won’t be able to meet Socrates…”
The challenge was not over. I had to guide my guide to be rightly guided. I opened the box. A beautiful white pigeon with rounded red eyelids and black eyes was staring at me. I let pigeon fly. Pigeon flew and sat on the top of a large gate. There was a large statue of a white flying pigeon, holding a white marble board. “Philosophers’ gate” on top followed by “Thee shalt fly with love of wisdom” was inscribed in black on the marble board. As I opened the door, the pigeon flew and sat on my shoulder.
By my entrance I was really puzzled by seeing so many ways and all of them were leading to thick woods that were making it possible to decide which way would be the correct one. I was looking for any written signs but there weren’t any. Some old men with different appearances approached me. All of them attractive and looking kind and intelligent. Each were carrying a small compass and were giving reasons for efficiency of their compasses and trying hard to convince me to put their compasses on neck of my pigeon so pigeon fly to right place. For me, it was hard to reject any of them but choosing which the compass of which one was difficult. I was confused and intimidated. Once again despite of having the guiding pigeon and were on land of philosophy I was not clear where to go.
I asked myself. Why they have chosen pigeon? I remembered that homely pigeons can find home even from unknown distant places. These pigeon use earth’s magnetic field for guidance however, the solar magnetic storms of solar system may mislead them. “Aha! I got it.” …”thee shalt fly with love of wisdom”… My guide is a homely pigeon that will guide me to Socrates but if I put compass on its neck the magnet of compass may misguide the pigeon and I may get lost.”
Once again, I was successful to find my way out. I said to these old men. “ I don’t want to break the heart of anyone so I am not going to use any of your compasses. Please excuse me”…. I let my pigeon fly. By midday, we reached to place of Socrates. We sat on a slab of stone under the olive tree, from where we could see down the valley and also the stony streets where people were busy with their businesses. We had long talks that I will share some times later but here I share the source of inspiration of Socrates. He said, “People question their childhood beliefs when they are in high school or college but once they become professors, Generals, Politicians, writers, Scientists or a professional person then they try to conform the reality to their beliefs. Cross-questioning will reveal the inadequacies of a lot of beliefs that they hold. People do not need only to question their childhood beliefs but also to question the beliefs of all ages. Older ages do not mean wisdom. You need to constantly expose yourself to cross-questioning to make sure that you carry less and lesser inadequacies……………..
When I woke up, m computer was still on and it was reading audiobook, “Divine comedy”….then I remembered, Oh! I have dreamt the voyage to philosophy land because I fell to sleep while listening to this auidobook which is famous classical book of Dante. It is my habit that I listen to audiobook before sleeping so I could have made maximum use of my time.
No comments:
Post a Comment