THE MOMENTARINESS OF THIS EXISTENCE

                                        

THE MOMENTARINESS  OF THIS EXISTENCE.

" Maine poochha ke zindagi kya hai,

Haath se gir ke jaam toot gaya"

My English translation is this:-

(( I sought to know what life is all about,

Alas! It slipped from my gasp ; 

Like a wine glass ( pleasures )  slipping from hands And  breaking into pieces.))

The concept of the momentariness of existence is a central philosophical doctrine in Buddhism known as ( ksanika-vaada), which emphasises that everything in the phenomenal world is transient and constantly changing.This doctrine is associated with the Buddhist concept of 'impermanence' (Anicca), which states that all created things inevitably change and decay.Each momentary existence causes the next. That is, one thing exists simultaneously as itself and as the cause of another. 

  The Upanishads reject the everyday world (samsara or maya). It  is described as impermanent, fleeting, and ultimately unreal from the highest perspective, but the underlying Self is not. The Upanishads focus on realising the permanent, eternal nature of the Self, which transcends the impermanent, "momentary" phenomenal world. The predominant teaching in the Upanishads is the spiritual identity of Self within each human being, with the Self of every other human being and living being, as well as with the supreme, ultimate reality Brahman.

 In the Katha Upanishad, Nachiketa, the text's central character, rejects Yama's offers of wealth and long life, calling them "fleeting and vain" and insisting on the eternal nature of the Self beyond death.

The Kena Upanishad addresses the impermanence of life by contrasting it with the permanent, unchanging reality of Brahman (the ultimate Self/Spirit). It teaches that the physical world and individual existence are transient phenomena, and true immortality is attained only by realising the self/ Brahman .

The Isha Upanishad teaches that the material world is transient and a universe of constant movement, but this phenomenal existence is enveloped and pervaded by the one, unchanging, and immortal Self (Brahman or Ishvara).

The Upanishads assert that mind has the power to perceive the world as it is, as well as fabricate the world as it wants to perceive it. Mind is a means to see the world but it is prone to flaws. In this ontological quest man has to make a serious attempt to realise the "true reality ( Brahman ) behind perceived reality ( Maaya )". That Brahman has no attributes or characteristics. German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer   in his book " Die Welt" ( in one specific   passage on Vedantic Concept of Maaya  )  writes :-

“It is Maya, the veil of deception, which blinds the eyes of mortals and makes them behold a world of which they cannot say that it is or that it is not: for it is like a dream; it is like the sunshine on the sand which the traveler from afar takes to be water; or the stray piece of rope he takes for a snake.”

Abdul Qadir Bedil was a Sufi poet of Indian School or what is known as ‘Sabk  e Hindi’ . He had done wide study of ancient Indian philosophers and the Influence of Buddhist philosopher  Nagarjuna is evident in the Persian poetry of Bedil. Bedil was also influenced by the Advait philosophy of Adi Sankara. And Bedil was Ghalib's greatest inspiration .This appears to be the reason for the influence of Upanishads/ Vedanta upon Mirza Ghalib’s poetry. Did Ghalib read Dara Shikoh's Persian translation of Upanishads ? I can't comment for I have no authentic source to fall back upon. Dara Shikoh was a lover of Upanishads and had 52 Upanishads translated into Persian just two years before he was executed  .His translation Sirr-e-Akbar (The Greatest Mystery ) was completed in 1657. He also got Bhagavad-Gita and the Yoga Vashishtha translated into Persian .In his foreword to Sirr e Akbar, Dara wrote:-

" Happy is he, who having abandoned the prejudices of vile selfishness, sincerely and with the grace of God, renouncing all partiality, shall study and comprehend this translation titled 'The Greatest Secret ' [Sirr-i-Akbar], knowing it to be a translation of the words of God. He shall become imperishable, fearless, unsolicitous, and eternally liberated.”

 " Hasti ke mat fareb mein aa jaaiyo ‘Assad’

Aalam tamaam halqaa-e-daam-e-khayaal hai”………( Ghalib )

Meaning …….

( Get not trapped by the deception of this existence O ! “Assad “,

This visible world in its entirety ,

belongs to the realm of imagination only.)

 

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.