Metaphysics, Metafiction & The Nature of Reality

Plato asks us to imagine a dark cave in which people are imprisoned since birth, tied up facing the back wall. Behind them is a fire, which casts shadows on the wall. Between the prisoners & the fire, people walk up & down, holding various objects which cast shadows on the wall. Only these shadows on the wall are seen as the world by the prisoners. If one of the prisoners unties himself & looks around, he will see the real objects & the world. (These untied people are the enlightened ones.)

In the rare sub-genre of children's metafiction, probably the best known example is Roderick Townley's "The great good Thing." This book is also a paean to books, their characters & most importantly, the Readers. It explores the possibilities of the characters in a book getting out of the book & interacting with a sympathetic reader. The readers are the very life breath to the characters in a book, without whom they die. So the grandchild of the girl who was the first reader of the eponymous book, helps Princess Sylvie, the heroine of the book (which has gone out of print with only one copy possessed by the grandchild) remain in existence after the book is mischievously destroyed by fire. 

After the destruction of the physical book, the characters live only so long as they remain in the memory & dreams of the readers. So Princess Sylvie (who doesn't age as she is only a character in the book) frantically traces the descendant of the first reader, insinuates herself into her memory (with the help of the first reader's grandchild) & triumphantly goes on to live, as the descendant recreates the eponymous book from her memory.

So both in Plato & Townley, the nature of reality & existence is analysed & also the resultant doubt of whether our life is real or a figment of someone else's thought or dream.

Of course, this is also close to "Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya" of Advaita Philosophy.

History & Religions

Prof. Arnold Toynbee, in his monumental "A Study of History", has a section entitled "Universal Churches -  Cancers or Chrysalis"

It can also be interpreted as whether the higher religions are self-perpetuating cancers (a view to gladden the heart of Richard Dawkins!) or a Chrysalis to evolve humanity to higher mutants.

One of the earliest religions, Hinduism, evolved from the rituals for well-being in the Vedas to the inquiry into the nature of Soul in the Upanishads.

The Semitic religion of Judaism, while propounding the Universal Ten Commandments, also advocated the not so desirable  concepts of "An Eye for an Eye & a Tooth for a Tooth" (which are being put into use by Israel against the Palestinians!) & also the concept of "The Chosen People" as if God had favourites.

The advent of Jesus Christ was the first to bring the concepts of forgiveness & mercy as civilising influences. But probably later evangelists propagated the hard to accept theory of "Jesus is the Only Way."

Islam's Prophet adapted the teachings of both the earlier Semitic religions with modifications to suit the Arabians. But here also the stultifying concept of the Prophet being the best & the last crept in. But curiously, though he was not aware of Hinduism, the Hindu practice of cleaning oneself & going unshod into a place of worship was incorporated into Islam.

The Universal Idea of a continuously evolving time cycle bringing the Chrysalis into a Divine Butterfly was mooted in the four Yugas of the Hindu belief which satisfies the rational & scientific mind.

After the implied intolerances of the Semitic religions, it was refreshing to note the Hindu reformer Saints, who appeared after the advent of the Semitic religions, promptly taking them on board as alternative ways to reach the Godhead, which is so obvious to an unbigoted mind. These were Shirdi Sai Baba in the western India, Sri Ramakrishna in the eastern part & Ramana Maharshi in the southern part.

As an interesting side light, Dr. S. Srikanta Sastri, in his Kannada textbook on World History, notes that though the Moors invaded & conquered Spain in 8th Century, the Islamic Culture propagated there was superior to the Christian Culture at that time. The Moors established Universities also. But when King Philip II of Spain drove out the Moors many centuries later, he destroyed the artifacts of the Islamic Culture in a fit of religious fanaticism.

To end with Prof. Toynbee again, he has also mentioned Islamic Tolerance as against Christian Intolerance in his magnum opus.

Suffering as God's Grace

It is a basic tenet of Christianity that Christ suffered to save Christians. Even in modern times, when their tribulations were medically witnessed, St. Bernadette & St. Faustina underwent untold suffering, the former from a tubercular ulcer & the latter from consumption, ending in early deaths.

In Hindu religion also, suffering was the portion of Lord Rama. On the eve of his Coronation, he was banished. Later also after the war to reclaim his wife, he was subjected to calumny & had to banish her. So either he had his wife or his kingdom, but not both at the same time.

Lord Krishna, right from birth, had to battle against great odds. He was also vilified as a philanderer & unscrupulous manipulator, before dying a lonely death by a stray arrow of a hunter.

Later reformist Saints, Sri Ramakrishna & Bhagawan Ramana suffered & died from painful cancers. Even most of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, starting from Swami Vivekananda, died early deaths, causing great grief to Sri Ramakrishna's consort Sri Sarada Devi, who herself had to take opium to manage the pain of her arthritis.

It may also be mentioned that close devotees of Bhagawan Satya Sai Baba, like N. Kasturi & John Hislop had more than the average share of their problems.

Probably because of this, the religion of Jainism has (to use an outrageous mixed metaphor), taken the bull by the horns & grasped the nettles to make mortification a central part of their creed & made "Sallekhana", fasting unto death, a fitting end to life.

To end this gloomy essay on a lighter note, some Semitic religions appear to imply that the suffering of the Good is compensated in the afterlife. Emerson, in his essay "Compensation", quotes a preacher quoting this doctrine. Emerson pertinently points out "Why not have a good time now instead of waiting for a hypothetical afterlife?"

There is also an apocryphal story of some Muslims visiting France for the first time. They were wonderstruck to see bubbling brooks & other heavenly delights there. They thought "If the promised delights of paradise after death to good Muslims by Allah are present here & now, the God of the Christians is preferable" & promptly converted!