How Can You Bind The Boundless?

(Anhad Ko Had Mein Kaise Laoge?)

“…Ahameva vata iva pravamyarabhamana
Bhuvanani visva
Paro diva para ena prthivyeitavati
Mahina sam vabhuva ||8||”

Translation:
While creating the whole universe,
I blow myself through it like the wind.
I have transcended the world and the firmament by dint of my powers,
And verily, I am the Universe.

— — — — — — The last stanza of Devi Suktam or Devi-Aatmaparichay Daan (As described in the Xth canto of the Rig Veda).

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

The downfall of human beings perhaps started the day our ancestors began ‘somebody-fying’ divinity. The reality that we could never measure divinity by our brains nor reach its end through our hearts threatened the unconscious ego. Unable to contain the infinite vastness of the cosmic sea of divinity in our small skulls we in vain attempts tried (and still try) to restrain divinity within the parameters that govern us.

And that has been the goal of organized religions since the advent of time. But were these efforts of defining what cannot be defined all gone in vain without a mention?

Yes, they did go in vain but they’re not only mentioned but also extremely feared because in each age they surface as catastrophic problems. And it is the same self-destructing human ego that even refuses to acknowledge its terrifying presence. So what is the problem?

When we somebody-fy the ideas that are born out of divine inspiration and mistake their scriptural symbolisms as their literal and truest manifestations, we successfully mould them into human flesh. What happens then? Under the pretext of interpreting the ideas easily and more readily to common folk, we unknowingly shove human inadequacies down their throat. What was supposed to be Sanatan, something a significant population is very proud of, becomes mundane beyond imagination.
That’s a lot of difficult words. In simpler language, these everlasting divine ideas become vulnerable to time, hence to decay and we assign them the same fate as ours — — -perishability. Still not easy to interpret.

Let’s put aside the problem for once and see its symptoms. The most relevant one is, drumrolls please:
Adipurush, an Indian Film.

For those who don’t know, this is a film that is the millionth piece of media that retells the story of Ramayana. But what is the issue with it?

There are countless ones, but perhaps the most heartbreaking is Lord Hanuman’s character in the film saying “Jalegi tere baap ki” after he sets the entire kingdom of Lanka to fire. This dialogue is not only overtly colloquial but is the tongue of a random Gen-Z urchin, used when verbal fights between rogue teenagers slowly escalate to vulgarity.

In case you still do not see the problem, let me clarify. Lord Hanuman is depicted as a supremely powerful being in the Hindu mythology, He is also one of the most venerated divine entities of the Hindu pantheon. However, that’s not what he is famous for, at least for the Hindu populace who really know their deities and what they stand for. Lord Hanuman’s humility, grace, and infinite compassion for all beings were the qualities that elevated Him to a divine status. Power was not what moved the God-incarnate, His divine virtues moved Rama.

How on earth is it possible that such a divine being engage in war stripping off all Godly decorum? It is not, because the Lord Hanuman we reduced to a pop culture icon, cannot be the same one, the Holy Scriptures preach about. This fall from crest was enabled the moment we forced lofty ideas into mundane shells and then left them for Kaal, or time to infect them. Thus infected, twisted, and tortured by the merciless law of time, these replicas drifted far away from their Holy undefeatable origin, the Divine Wisdom.

And now we find them devoid of everything divine and standing as shallow and perverse images of timeless Divinity.

The saddest part about this is we enabled it because we could harness divinity to yield commerce. We sold divinity in the same way we trade amenities, and we know those shops as organized religions today. What was the Chintamani (or jewels born out of steadfast contemplation and sharpening of wisdom) of our pious ancestors all over the world now reduced to banal products.

And that was the primal sin: to have the foolish audacity to try to walk all over divinity and tame as if it were a fierce animal. The Vedas repeatedly meditate on the fact that every syllable, let alone every verse, that is used in describing the un-imaginable divine nature, goes in vain for there’s none that has ever contemplated it successfully nor there ever will be. However, in the Gita, the God-incarnate Krishna never restricts mankind to worship a divine with a form (Sagun), neither does He triumph the worshippers of the Nirgun, the formless, over the Sagun worshippers. Sadly even as the devil can use the scriptures for its own benefit, so does mankind time and again and very conveniently forgets the wisdom of the Vedas.

We tried to judge when the right thing to do was to accept.

In the creation myth according to Shaktism, after the Supreme Being Adya Kalika, seated on a red lotus in the middle of the cosmic ocean, separates from Her the Shiva Tattva to establish a separate entity, She named Him Mahakal. From the union of Mahakal and Adya Kalika were born three entities who were instructed by Her to undertake severe penance. Their penance ended when in the cosmic ocean where they were meditating, surfaced Adya Kalika in the gruesome form of a corpse that was melting from decay. The first two entities who were afraid of the corpse and turned away were then made the bearers of Sattvik and Rajasik gunas, namely Brahma and Vishnu respectively. However, when the third entity, the most pious and wise of them all saw the corpse, He was unable to find any difference between Himself and the grotesque one. He gladly embraced the corpse in utter acceptance and pleased with His wisdom, Adya Kalika pronounced him Shiva, the bearer of both Sattvik and Rajasik gunas, the highest among all gods.

Because Shiva saw the worst of everything that existed both outside and inside Him, He also discovered the energy that drove creation in His own self. And that wisdom shattered His ego and made him worthy of being the Ishvara, the Lord.

According to the Sufi school of thought, the ilm, or knowledge never abandoned the world, it always found its interpreters like Kabir who held it high amidst laymen. Whatever the century, language, religion, or geographical boundary, there’s one truth all Holy Scriptures declare in unison, to not attempt to bind the boundless for it only inflicts misery and drives wisdom away.

“…जाहि अनादि अनंत अखंड अछेद अभेद सुबेद बतावै॥
नारद से सुक व्यास रटै पचि हारे तऊ पुनि पार न पावै।…”

Translation:
The being whom the Vedas say to be timeless, endless, infinite, omnipotent, and omnipresent,
Sages and learned men like Narad and Sukdev chant of night and day,
Yet can’t hold its all-pervading nature even in their superior minds so full of divine wisdom.

— — — — — — — — — -Shri RasKhan