That 'Precious Stone'!

On the Concept of ‘Self!’ - I

Contemplations on the concept of the ‘Self’ have always been so fascinating and amazing!

Philosophers, litterateurs and sages of yore, down the ages, have given us all, powerful, life-sustaining, life-celebrating, life-impacting maxims that hinge on the importance of celebrating this wonderful concept of the ‘self’!

The Greek writer and geographer Pausanias, vouches to quite a few of these wonderful sayings on the ‘self,’ inscribed in gold, since days of yore, by sages across ages, at the sacred Temple of Apollo in Delphi, right at the forecourt to the temple! These life-giving words and useful phrases for humans, were edifying edifices that served to strengthen the soul! To this end, these maxims and aphorisms abounded aplenty in the mouths of all Greeks right from tiny tots to elders alike!

One of such impactful maxims that glistened and gleamed at the forecourt to the Temple is,

Know thyself!

Socrates later expanded and explicated on this wonderful aphorism, as –

The unexamined life is not worth living!

In fact, cultural orientations and their hugey impact on the individual have always had a profound impact on the concept of the ‘Self’!

And, as is oft said, while the Western view of the ‘Self’ tends more towards ‘Individualism’, the Asian and African perspectives to the self have always laid more emphasis on ‘Collectivism’!

Hence foraying into these significant social views of the ‘Self’ have ramifications galore both on the societal and the individual planes as well!

However, I would try going beyond these social constructs of the ‘Self’ and strive to put forth a few glimpses of the Self from a ‘liminal’ist sweep!

Soren Kierkegaard, the most influential Danish philosopher of the 19^th century, in his book The Sickness Unto Death, [written when Nietzsche woulda just finished his LKG, UKG and musta been enrolled to the first grade/standard in primary school, in the year 1849,] says on the Self, that, 

The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing: every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, etc. is bound to be noticed.

In fact, Kierkegaard’s profound investigations on the concept of the ‘Self’ was to greatly inspire, impact and influence a ‘host’y generation of later philosophers including the likes of Freud, William James, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Camus, Sartre, et al.

To Kierkegaard, there is within humans, the dualities of the finite and the infinite!

The finite to him, is a limiting, constraining and conditioning factor that impedes and prevents human beings from attaining their fullest potential, whereas the infinite is the ‘expanding factor’ that moots, inspires and motivates infinite possibilities galore within the human!

So the realm of the infinite within humans, is the capacity to think new thoughts, work on new ideas, create new streams of knowledge, work on new inventions, et al!

To restrict oneself to the finite mode, then, would be to perceive and to imagine that one is living in a cloistered, inescapable environment, where no escape is possible, and where there’s no possibility of breaking free into the world of the infinite! Such a perspective to life would often lead to anxiety, depression and a slavish dependence on others.

To Kierkegaard, such individuals often find safety and security by assimilating themselves into social, institutional, or familial networks, finding it,

too venturesome a thing to be himself, far easier and safer to be like the others, to become an imitation, a number, a cipher in the crowd. (The Sickness Unto Death)

On the contrary, ‘to lose oneself in the infinite’ would mean to live your little life on planet earth as though life presents to you a huge foray of unending possibilities of the vast expanse of the unexplored to be unearthed, and uncovered! To such people as this, life is seen as something so unique, so dynamic and so vibrant, as a ‘series of endlesssssss experiments!'

To them, life by default presents on a platter, a gigantic gut instinct that makes them say, Well, yesss! I can become and do so many things!

Kierkegaard quips that, a human being, is a synthesis of these opposites of the finite and the infinite!

Hence, with the plethora of choices available, one must choose, rather carefully, diligently and sagaciously, a definite way of life, and a style of living, that goes along so naturally and spontaneously with oneself! This required constant effort, systematic practice and patient striving, according to Kierkegaard!

In her brilliant poem aka monologue titled, ‘Journey to the Interior’, Atwood talks about this concept of the journey into the ‘Self’ which to her is the bestest journey ever, to the bestest destination ever! And that’s one reason why she says with the utmost conviction, ‘there are no destinations apart from this.’

Kierkegaard echoes a similar note, when he says that, on the path to selfhood one must ‘walk without meeting one single traveler’!

And the prize?

Yesss! To Kierkegaard, in this path to ‘Selfhood’ one gets to obtain for oneself, as a great reward, what he calls a ‘precious stone’! This precious stone is so precious, that one cannot obtain it unless one does some real patient and diligent toil!

This ‘precious stone’ is not strewn on the public, social pathways and byways! Nayver!!!

It’s something that’s contained deep within a person, and therefore, to obtain this great prize of unrivalled merit, one must have the guts to set out on a lonesome, solitary journey within, as a ‘single individual,’ devoid of the crowd! Devoid of the distractions! Devoid of the madding crowd’s ignoble strife! Devoid of the chantings of the crowd!

Anxiety or to be much specific, the existential angst, has a high therapeutic value to it, and therefore, all humans who are on the path to ‘Self’hood, must really go through this process of anxiety, which becomes a great teacher in itself!

Says Kierkegaard,

I will say that this is an adventure that every human being must go through – to learn to be anxious… Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate. (The Concept of Anxiety)

Well, in the light of Kierkegaard’s ruminations on the concept of ‘Self’ and ‘Selfhood’, me got impulsively inspired to work on quite a few interesting ponderings and reflections on the ‘Self’ from off literary reads from across the world, with the avowed objective of celebrating the concept of ‘Self’ like as we celebrate life and literature!

Please permit our first pitstop on this literary sojourn on the ‘self’ at some real immortal, inspiring lines of Nissim Ezekiel from his poem, ‘Enterprise’!

Ironic though he seems, in many of his candida kinda lines, he real has got such a brilliant point to make! A very effective point at that! 

In this poem, Nissim narrates the journey of a motley group of people, who decide to set out on a pilgrimage of sorts to some holy land!

The journey seems to have started off on such a noble note with very high intentions, and noble aspirations, as the pilgrimage was supposed to ‘exalt minds and make all the burdens light.’

But, soon, and quite soon at that, the group of pilgrims started getting disillusioned because they did not ‘test their call’ in the first place! Connoting to mean that, they did not first do the journey to the interior, before they could dare to do this journey to the exterior!

The poet ends this superb poem on a sarcastic note and an ironic tone: When finally we reached the place, We hardly knew why we were there. The trip had darkened every face, Our deeds were neither great nor rare.

We hardly knew why we were there. The trip had darkened every face, Our deeds were neither great nor rare.

We hardly knew why we were there. The trip had darkened every face, Our deeds were neither great nor rare.

We hardly knew why we were there. The trip had darkened every face, Our deeds were neither great nor rare.

Repetition is for that added emphasis!

I continue the quote Nissim from his ‘Enterprise’ –

We noticed nothing as we went,

A straggling crowd of little hope,

Ignoring what the thunder meant,

Deprived of common needs like soap.

Some were broken, some merely bent.

When, finally, we reached the place,

We hardly knew why we were there.

The trip had darkened every face,

Our deeds were neither great nor rare.

Home is where we have to gather grace.

Home here connotes the personal sphere! A real and insightful understanding of the ‘Self’!

How beautifully does Carl Jung sum it up, “Who looks outside dreams! Who looks inside, awakens!”

And add Tagore, the impactful bard, whose immortal lines that got him the Nobel – lines that we are still in awe of! 

Over to Tagore - 

My song has put off her adornments. She has no pride of dress and decoration. Ornaments would mar our union; they would come between thee and me; their jingling would drown thy whispers.

O master poet, I have sat down at thy feet. Only let me make my life simple and straight, like a flute of reed for thee to fill with music.

The child who is decked with prince's robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step.

In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move.

Talking then of the journey metaphor, he beautifully says,

The time that my journey takes is long and the way of it long.

I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light, and pursued my voyage through the wildernesses of worlds leaving my track on many a star and planet.

It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself, and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune.

The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.

we continue on our sojourn…

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