The leaf story

While I was...

reading The immortals of Meluha -by debutant Amish. A fictional account and a radical take on why Shiva (the Hindu diety) was just another human -who by his valor, principles and righteousness commanded divine stature from the masses.
The book traces the path of Shiva, a young tribal chief, tired of being in a constant fight or flight mode, desperately seeking solutions to escape from the mundanity of warfare in the otherwise serene womb of Himalayan ranges.
Opportunity comes calling , with Nandi, an expat from Srinagar, offering on a silver platter , him and his clan a shot at civil life.He is plagued by doubt with the motive of the Suryavanshi's (Lord Ram's lineage) all of which succumbs to his desire of giving his people a life more humane ,if not better.
Having left behind the imposing mountains and their home by the Manasarovar , Shiva and his people are accepted by King Daksha and his regime. The "why"of it all forms the premise of the rest of the book. I wouldnt want to give anything away for those who would be reading the book. The story is clever, taunt and an eclectic amalgamation of facts, legends and beliefs covering  the expanse of history , civilisations and mythology. Interpretations of the codes of "Ram Rajya", considereded near perfect, politically and socially, with wide applicablity to the contemporary world appeal to the general sensibilities.
In particular I am drawn to a simple paragrapgh from the book, which is also my take away from it.
I am still struck by the enormity of that thought and maybe, just maybe, this post smacks of philosophising on life, harping on the self help school of literature. Now is your cue to stop reading this post if that disinterests you. The fiction if a good read though. Try and not miss it. You will not be dazzled by it but atleast you would have read a good story.

The others continue....

Premise: Shiva is in a dilemmatic situation, his sense of judgement clouded by the perpetual stand off between good and evil. In dialog with his sub conscious (the religious might want to interpret these parts as divine interludes) roughly put as follows:

Sub conscious: Shiva, look around you, what is the color of that leaf?
Shiva: Green.
Sub conscious: Is it? How does one see?
Shiva: When light falls on an object, the object reflects it back and thats what the eye sees.
Sub conscious: Yes. Light is white, a confluence of seven colors, thats is why you see rainbow when sun light disperses water drops.
So what color is the leaf?
Shiva: Green
Sub conscious : Is it? Put the two theories together Shiva.
Shiva: When light falls on the leaf, the physical property of the leaf is such that it absorbs all colors excepting Green which it reflects back....
Sub conscious (interjects)..hence, the leaf is anything but green, is it not?
Shiva: Yes.
Sub conscious: See if it helps your plagued mind. Focus beyond what your eyes can see. The weight of your decision shall weigh heavily on this civilisation. The evil that you see, is it really so? ....

And so the story resumes it flow.
I am transfixed by simply revisitng the two theories.In our lives, at times of trials, sorrows and imminent failures our reasoning seemingly deserts us. The focus is lost and the spirit defeated. And for the stronger ones, like Shiva, a temporary haze of uncertainty clouds our vision.

All it takes is to really "See", Comprehend, Demystify. That's character. That's our moment of glory.That's our personal triumph.
It doesnot take a great deal of intellect or academic brilliance to look beyond the surface and lift the veil off it all. It takes Attitude.
Have an attitude and cultivate it, build it to be your faith. That's the Godliness in all of us, inside , not outside of us.

To borrow a line from the book..."har har mahadev" meaning each one of us is a Mahadev, Lord of Gods.