PERMANENCE AND IMPERMANENCE

PERMANENCE AND IMPERMANENCE

A sense of permanence pervades our sense of impermanence and lends us stability in an unstable life where shadows keep on changing contours and life alters in tune. This sense of permanence is the secret sense of our immortal Self which we, as it were, pre-cognise unknowingly. But the pervading sense of insecurity, the sense of finite fears, of physical termination of our selves, keep us involved in our struggle for terrestrial survival with all its mean and mundane derivatives.

But there are a few exceptional ones who are endowed with the instinct and the inspiration to seek beyond the routine rigmarole of life's engagements and demands, and they come across vistas wide that open out to them a passage to Reality. Their visit to the realm beyond relativity brings us the message from across the seas as they sing for us in sublime strains, ''Oi mahasindhur opaar theke/Ki sangeet bheshey ashey/Mahasindhur opaar theke.'' And we listen in rapt wonderment, losing our sense of location in space and time for the while before the rude jolt of routine reality brings us back to our limiting senses, breaking the blissful reverie of near-forgotten dreams.

Thus carries on our earthly oscillation till we are laid to rest one dewy dawn with relatives shedding copious streams. Even then our hopes hang as we are put up in picture frame and suspended for one last time on the wall which a future descendent in utter ignorance of untraced roots brings down to bury us into the oblivion whence we had once sprung.

And where do we go with hopes undone? Why? The cycle goes on as newer forms evolve out of old shadows and shadowy perform their magic shows till the magician at last reveals from behind the conjured screen. Then the play is done and the players return to roots, the audience disperses and the stage is undone. It is dark all over again as Kali pervades in solitary union with Her consort, awaiting a future stretching of Her syllabic tongue.

Written by Sugata Bose