Sunday, April 12, 2015
The Fireplace
The Fireplace…
Right now I am seated majestically in front of the fireplace in our London home on a cold and wet winter evening, sipping some piping hot tea. The fireplace is glowing with live embers emitting adequate warmth and comfort. I am watching the burning coal intently and a thought process takes me back a couple of centuries ago and I begin visualising eminent Philosophers of that era, seated on leather chairs (with perhaps a glass of Sherry or Port in their hands!) and thinking deep over life and living; perhaps toying with newer doctrines and hypotheses. Great personalities such as Bertrand Roussel, Immanuel Kant, Rousseau, Spinoza, and may be others like Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Mark Twain etc must have spent lot of time enjoying the warmth of a fireplace. Indeed, I am doing so right now, seated majestically in front of a well-lit Fireplace in our London home on a cold and wet winter evening!
And such a situation makes me deeply introvert. I begin to compare the Anglo-Saxon or Euro-English philosophies with Eastern or predominantly Indian, where there is an overall thrust on Jnyana-Vijnyana (Knowledge of the Self or Atma and the visible world), vis-à-vis the Western that is primarily more materialistic. The body, mind and intellect are the ones, which attract deeper thought, whereas the Eastern thinking considers these as transient and ephemeral. The concept of the all-pervading Atma or Brahmam is the principle component of that philosophy.
Well, I do not carry the prefix “Sri Sri Sri” or the suffix “Maharaj” etc as of now, and therefore I am open to criticism or even ridicule for such audacious thinking. (However, the ‘Dr.’ as my prefix may create some confusion as to my credentials though!!!) indeed, I am still a student in the KG of philosophic study and would love to be so for a few more births! It is indeed fascinating, this rumination, seated majestically in front of a Fireplace in our London home on a cold and wet winter evening sipping piping hot tea!!
London. 28 February 2015.
Right now I am seated majestically in front of the fireplace in our London home on a cold and wet winter evening, sipping some piping hot tea. The fireplace is glowing with live embers emitting adequate warmth and comfort. I am watching the burning coal intently and a thought process takes me back a couple of centuries ago and I begin visualising eminent Philosophers of that era, seated on leather chairs (with perhaps a glass of Sherry or Port in their hands!) and thinking deep over life and living; perhaps toying with newer doctrines and hypotheses. Great personalities such as Bertrand Roussel, Immanuel Kant, Rousseau, Spinoza, and may be others like Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Mark Twain etc must have spent lot of time enjoying the warmth of a fireplace. Indeed, I am doing so right now, seated majestically in front of a well-lit Fireplace in our London home on a cold and wet winter evening!
And such a situation makes me deeply introvert. I begin to compare the Anglo-Saxon or Euro-English philosophies with Eastern or predominantly Indian, where there is an overall thrust on Jnyana-Vijnyana (Knowledge of the Self or Atma and the visible world), vis-à-vis the Western that is primarily more materialistic. The body, mind and intellect are the ones, which attract deeper thought, whereas the Eastern thinking considers these as transient and ephemeral. The concept of the all-pervading Atma or Brahmam is the principle component of that philosophy.
Well, I do not carry the prefix “Sri Sri Sri” or the suffix “Maharaj” etc as of now, and therefore I am open to criticism or even ridicule for such audacious thinking. (However, the ‘Dr.’ as my prefix may create some confusion as to my credentials though!!!) indeed, I am still a student in the KG of philosophic study and would love to be so for a few more births! It is indeed fascinating, this rumination, seated majestically in front of a Fireplace in our London home on a cold and wet winter evening sipping piping hot tea!!
London. 28 February 2015.
