4 June 2020 | Stoicism
Originally published on Wordpress
4 June 2020
One Quote
“ ‘A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation.’ This remark of Epicurus’ is to me a very good one.
For a person who is not aware that he is doing anything wrong has no desire to be put right. You have to catch yourself doing it before you can reform. Some people boast about their failings: can you imagine someone who counts his faults as merits ever giving thought to their cure?
So — to the best of your ability — demonstrate your own guilt, conduct inquiries of your own into all the evidence against yourself. Play the first part of prosecutor, then of judge and finally of pleader in mitigation.
Be harsh with yourself at times. ”
— Seneca, Letters From a Stoic
In life, I have observed one thing. Problems come and go. When they go, they take some of our time with them, and we find we have aged. Time passes, but we get spent.
And no amount of money ever bought a second of time. :) and it is true for all of us. Imagine life to be a typical work ‘week’ — many of us spend initial days just waiting for the weekend / youth (childhood). Friday comes (adulthood) — we’re too busy waiting for the next phase. The problem is, we think we have time.
Just like that we waste our Friday night and Saturday night — saying we always have more time (Sunday) — and before we know it, Sunday night is there, weekend is over, and we find we have achieved little in reality, and just procrastinated the week (our whole life) away — engaging in mindless distractions rather than deep, meaningful activities.
Luckily, life is longer than a week, so let’s learn from our previous weeks. Carpe diem!
One Song
One of my favourite golden classics. Learnt a lot later the entire lyrics of this song is one philosophical line of thought ‘Stoicism’
मैं ज़िन्दगी का साथ निभाता चला गया
हर फ़िक्र को धुएँ में उड़ाता चला गया
I just kept accompanying my life,
Made every worry fly away with the smoke…
बरबादियों का सोग मनाना फ़जूल था
बरबादियों का जश्न मनाता चला गया
It was futile to be sad for all ruins
(So) I kept on celebrating all the ruins
ग़म और ख़ुशी में फ़र्क़ न महसूस हो जहाँ
मैं दिल को उस मक़ाम पे लाता चला गया
Where there is no difference felt in sorrow and joy,
I kept trying to take myself to that point…
One movie scene
Oh SRK of yore, who chose movies like ‘Chak De!’ and ‘Swades’, where art thou? Miss you.
The movie starts with SRK’s Kabir Khan being labelled a ‘traitor’ and ends with him redeeming his fellow countrymen’s respect, and most importantly, assuaging his own guilt for letting the nation down.
I love this character, he emotes through his eyes, is laconic, and always to the point.
There are so many moments where Kabir just bears all the pain. And it’s a very emotionally fulfilling scene when Indian Women Hockey team wins. A picture is worth a thousand words, and SRK’s facial expressions in that scene are worth a thousand monologues. (A screenshot won’t do justice, better watch the scene again! I just did.)
Favourite dialogue? (Not the famous ‘70-minute’ speech, but a short one in the middle)
“Pehle apni game baaki logo se unchi karo, fir apni aawaz unchi karna”
<First raise your game compared to others, then raise your voice>
