The reality is only half-perceived and half-imagined. The ethical question is: should we strive to know more? This is what scientists have been doing, and they have succeeded to a great extent.

Dr. Jernail S. Anand

“From brutes, what men, and from men, what spirits know

Or who could suffer being here below?

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today,

Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?”

 -Pope ‘Essay on Man

We do not see everything. Rather, we cannot see beyond a limit.

Ultimate vision can lead to an imbalance in the life of man.

The soothsayers who could see more than ordinary men,

Never lived normal lives.  – Dr. Anand

We can touch a live wire only if it is wrapped in a rubber coating. The copper wire is given a beautiful multi-colored exterior.  Even within the copper wire, runs an invisible current when connected to the source of power. In this way, we have three coverings, which stand between the current and ourselves. Every one cannot stand the dazzling charm of beauty. So, it is released in parts. Getting in front of God too can dazzle us, like a sharp light coming from ahead. We can see things only when the light is tolerable. This is how the light and the shade make the experience worldly and workable.

A veil is looked upon as something which blocks the vision. Women in certain communities stay behind the veil. Even otherwise, we keep only our face naked, while all our body is under cover. [Animals and birds do not wear clothes, yet we never think they are naked.] Not only that, under the cover of clothes, is flesh which again is a coating on the pack of bones and blood. What runs within the bones and blood? A current which we may call consciousness, as it runs in the copper wire, and remains invisible to the eye.

Eyes are physical assets of mankind, but with our eyes, we can see only things which possess a tangible shape. We cannot see invisible things, which we can only feel, or experience. If we want to see the invisible, we need to close our eyes. The prophets and soothsayers used to be blind, who could see into the past and the future of men. Sight, foresight, and hindsight – have nothing to do with eyes. Moreover, vision too is a mental state. Eyes provide us a limited sight only. I sometimes feel, with one eye, we can see what is before us, and with the other, we can look through the reality and perceive what lies beyond the physical reality that is presented to us.

Reality and Duality

Reality is a confusing word. What we see has many dimensions. Philosophers, who deal in abstractions, often call it duality. A river is at the same time an ocean as well. A man is at the same time the Universal Self also. There is a very thin veil between these two identities of objects, which it is not difficult to see through. A single identity is in itself a veil, which keeps it away from understanding its multi-facial revelation.

God has not revealed himself to man, in spite of best efforts by the scientists. It is the invisibility of the divine that creates a sense of awe in the minds of men. What we can see loses all its romance which attaches to objects which enjoy invisibility. We have never seen God. Millions of people describe him in as many ways. Scientists are in relentless pursuit of nature’s secrecies, and what lies hidden in the bundle of bones called man. Gods are unyielding, because, once the secret is out, God too will be chased out of his golden tents, and men will plunder all the gold and silver from the walls of Heaven.

Transparency

In our relationships too, there is a limit to transparency. Everything cannot be shared with everyone. Or it can lead to civil war among the families, and even in the society. Pope says “From brutes what men, and from men, what spirits know/or who could suffer being here below?” Not only this, man knows very little of himself or the divine schemata. It is not only surprising but shocking too that man cannot see his face. He cannot see his back. He cannot see his head. I wonder what purpose this incapability of man is meant to serve. Then, what you think does not travel to the other person, unless it is said loudly. There are a hundred evil thoughts in our mind, but thank God, nobody can read this offensive text. Our mind is a magic box which cannot be opened. No science no surgery can open the brain and know what lies within.

Whatever man writes, or says, is again only a part of what he could have said, or written. Wisdom has no other meaning except in excising what one wants to say, and what one should say at a particular moment. The wiser the person, the lesser doth he speak. I sometimes feel this body is also a veil put on man’s consciousness. We don’t know what it is. We don’t know what is in our mind. We know very little of ourselves. Most of us is revealed to us only when we come into contact with outside stimuli. Otherwise, things remain unstirred and buried.

The Partial World

Dreams take the veil off our troubled psyche and point to the truths submerged deep below in layers of consciousness. What is the subconscious and the unconscious? They too are veils which remain unlifted all one’s life, and which are taken off in parts, only in our dreams, or only when we are hypnotized by a psychologist.

The recent trending of fake news, no news, and ultra-news – all are the direct offshoots of the veil-bearing society, which does not want to show its face, which is so shocking otherwise. The cosmetics, the Deos, the fair and lovelies, fragrances – everything is meant to hide the truth from the view and therefore, pass for veilular* substances.

Our language too is a part of the game of partiality. Words do not speak, they are sometimes used as a smoke screen. We do not understand ourselves, and how can others understand us perfectly? The language, the signs, the gestures, and the silences only complicate the confusion that this life is, wrap in veils.

The Ethical Question

It is clear that reality is only half-perceived and half-imagined. The ethical question is: should we strive to know more? This is what scientists have been doing, and they have succeeded to a great extent. But, the end result of all these pursuits is not happy. Men who know more than they should, and with powers of the AI, turn into quasi-monsters. The more we know, the more inhuman and unhappier we grow. The unhappiness, joylessness, misery, violence and distrust – all these states characterize our world, and the only logic behind this is: our knowledge which is in far excess of what we actually needed to know, in order to lead happy lives.

*Veil-ular: having a veil [don’t go to dictionary please]