SRIJAN 2002-2003(1st Edition)

♦ CONTOURS OF THE MIND/Lunar Antipodes
mortcv ITEHCZERS
By:
Swati Mahajan,
First Year,
Architecture.
Date: 323 BC
Place: Asia Minor
Alexander the Great, is lying on his deathbed smitten by plague, overcome by unrest, anxiety and pain gasping for one last breath
of health. Alas in his mind, comes the map of the 'world', his conquered world to be perused. 'Take it and give me one moment's health
in barter!' But there is no response except, of course, the sound of the rushing feet of his faithful attendants. He points towards his
empty hands and rays, "Look at them and show them to the masses."
This was the end to the endless hunt for materialism exhibited by each and every corpse that visits the cremation grounds,
expressed if not in the above mentioned form, but at least in one of its prototypes. Times have changed, landscapes have changed and
the face of earth has been altered. But something that never has, nor will ever change is the human mind. What previously was the
stature of a gold studded chariot, a palace, scores of servants and attendants and adorations of the body is now metamorphosed into
palatial bungalows, latest models of luxurious cars, electronic gadgets and cosmetics from the stores lining avenue De Champs
Elysseus, Paris.
Money in economics is defined as a matter of three functions i.e. food, shelter and clothing. We really cannot add the fourth
function that money is important for happiness.
Let me ask you, "Will you trade your mother's love for all the diamonds in the world?" Surely not because we all know that money
can buy the diamonds but never a mother's love.
Money may help you ascend the social ladder but it can never lead you to the doorway to happiness.
We might have forgotten the meaning of true happiness but the trees remember beneath which a Patanjali once meditated, the earth
remembers which was blessed when a Buddha stepped on it, the firmament remembers when Krishna preached him the principles of
non-attachment on the grounds of Kurukshetra.
The secret of true happiness lies within us. The sentence has, in fact, become the most hackneyed statement of all times, an object
of plain mockery, something so commonly repeated at a temple, mosque or church that we choose to ignore if not abhor it. But did any
one of us stop and question: why and how? None of us perhaps, and those who did, got more formidable trite answers.
The inner world if properly harnessed through meditation and self-analysis, experimentation might come to give us the same
amount of pleasure and grant us the supreme state of ecstasy, immersed in which a Jesus does not mind getting his body pierced with
nails. Thus we see that the quest for happiness is all about experimenting with what we have forgotten and so in the world of Rado's
and Gucci's. I dare to say that money is not important to be happy, for money supports the body and senses while happiness is a much
deeper concept and deep down. We all know that monetary world is nothing but a web in which we all get lost sometimes. Remember
the Master card's ad-line: 'your beloved's smile: priceless; for everything else there is Master Card!'
Tube Thought: Today as the world is getting more and more materialistic we need to stop and analyze what is more important to us
'money' or 'true happiness'. Those of the view that money is the pathway to true happiness need to realize the hollowness of the claim.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
) (SIMIAN)