A Fly in the Soup

This story feels quite rosy until the thorns of reality prick to deflate the dreamy existence. Especially in these confusing times when choices are plenty, the ever maddening race to perfection becomes an unending phenomenon. So much so that we are deprived of mindfulness of the moment. Deprived of sanity, we presume the gross material existence to be the real truth when in reality it is nothing but a colossal mirage. 

Relationships suffer the most by such a cavalier attitude. Everything except feelings take priority in these times. A perfect income or a perfect car (whatsoever it is) takes precedence over a warm companionship. In other words, vesting of a relationship is dependent on fulfilment of such materialistic conditions precedent. Even a slightest otherwise ignorable mistake becomes an excuse to end everything in the name of freedom of choice. Exclusivity in relationships is a “bollywood-esque” phenomenon that has no real life existence unless bound by any social compulsion such as marriage or parental relations. 

In times when a hitherto dear person is worn out of mind in a matter of minutes, hours and days seeking exclusivity in a relationship is nothing short of sin. Millennials have grown up in the era of consumerism where market has been the ruling force effecting our life like never before. Finesse of market-driven desires and their fulfilment has crept in our relationships too. It is a sad fallout of human growth story where the affection has lost the race to affluence. Contentment is considered a vice and anyone pursuing it is deemed to be a worldly fool who faces automatic ostracisation.

Since times immemorial the dichotomy between body and soul has plagued the human existence. Sapiens have been the slave of human body. Unless one transcends the innate animality, this unending desire to gain pleasure through flesh does not subside. Civilisation merely suppresses this pursuit of desire to produce disastrous consequences that take time to pierce the veneer of vanity and surface in open. Perfection, to a human mind, is nothing but incessant and smooth fulfilment of desires. One desire paves way for another until one reaches his last breath only to realise that all these efforts were only to reach the ultimate common end. 

Void created by disappearance of love in our lives is the biggest casualty of our times. There is a continuous search for love by human beings. We all are running on wrong tracks. Love is the ultimate surrender that does not require reciprocation to ensure its existence. However, the era of Archies is creating a different world where everything can be manufactured. Even Love! Manufactured entity comes with certain predefined attributes. This erodes love of its spontaneous growth. Hence, millennials look for a movie-like love because that is all what is available to them in this world where winning race is all that matters the most. Darwin would be smiling in his grave by observing the nearly universal applicability of his survival of the fittest theory. The fittest and not the loveliest wins the race even today. 

Natural consequence of this approach is perpetual emotional turbulence. The sanctity of present moment is robbed by the preoccupation with past and future. Deprived of the strength to bear the travails of love, we have developed the habit of choosing evanescent happiness over perennial contentment. How can one attain freedom while walking on the path of entanglement? This will never happen.

In such times those seeking love in the other shall be thrown away like a fly in the soup. It is a proverbial truth that must be realised at the earliest to not foster expectations of a permanence. A mind ready to find excuses rather than taking a stand for itself not only hurts itself but all those associated with it. It finds excuse in the tormented past or the uncertain future to blemish the immaculate present. To absolve itself of guilt and feel good about itself, it seeks to paint a rosy picture which is ultimately smudged by the frailties of human fallibility. 

Those seeking love in the epoch of perfection must accept their destiny as a fly in the soup. A fleeting dip in the palatable gravy of tangy emotions does not guarantee the permanence of feelings. Immediacy of result pips the otherwise long process of nurturing love. 

So all the flies in the soup must realise that being thrown out is their destiny. Their deliverance lies in the realisation of SELF. Instead of languishing in the soupy existence, one must fly high and seek new independent horizons that do not require anyone else. Once attained, such a state results in unending bliss where you yourself are the source and the sought. Advait says that we all have evolved from one and the same point. The purpose of our worldly existence is to diminish this otherness and make our journey to the same point from where it all started! That alone is the path to ultimate freedom and contentment.

Life does not end even if you are thrown out like a fly in the soup!!

– Ashaant