Friday, January 24, 2014

Subjective nature of Reality

I love this story about Majnun because it echoes the same sentiments quantum physics teaches today.....the nature of reality depends upon its reference point.Its a revolutionary concept because it challenges our everyday dogma's.


The story about Majnu is very significant. It is a Sufi story. It is not an ordinary love story as people have been thinking, it is an allegory.

Majnu fell in love with a woman called Laila who was not beautiful according to others. According to the public opinion she was very ordinary, homely -- not only that but ugly too. And Majnu was mad, so mad that the very name of Majnu has become synonymous with madness. He was continuously praying to God, continuously moving around the city asking people for help, because he was a poor man and the woman he had fallen in love with belonged to an aristocratic family.


 Even to see Laila from far away was not easy. It was a muslim country, and in a Muslim country it is very difficult to see even the face of a woman.Seeing his agony, his anguish, even the king became a little concerned.

 He called Majnu; he felt great compassion for him. He told him, "I know that woman; that family is well known to me, and if Laila had been a beautiful woman she would have been part of my harem. I have not chosen her -- she is not worth choosing. I have got all the beautiful women from all over the country, and I feel so much for you that I will give you a chance. You can choose any woman from my harem and she will be yours!" -- and he called the most beautiful women.

Majnu looked at each woman in minute detail and said, "This is not Laila!" Again and again...he passed over a dozen women, and the remark was always the same: "This is not Laila!"

The king said, "You must have gone utterly crazy! Laila is nothing compared to these beautiful women! You can choose anyone. I KNOW your Laila, I have known the most beautiful women of the world, and my women are some of the greatest that have ever been on the earth."

Majnu said, "But you don't understand me. And I can understand that you cannot understand. It is not a question of choosing somebody else; the choice is not in my hands. It has happened already; the heart has chosen! I am nobody, I cannot interfere in it. The mind is only the circumference; the heart is the center. The center has chosen, how can the circumference interfere?

"And moreover -- forgive me for saying so, because you have been so kind -- I still insist that there has never been a woman like Laila and there will never be again. But to see the beauty of Laila you need the eyes of a Majnu, and you don't have those eyes so nothing can be done about it. You have to see her through MY eyes; only then will you be able to see the grandeur, the splendor of her being."


Remember these words: To see the beauty of Laila you need the eyes of a Majnu
.To see the beauty of your own world, you need to open your own eyes.

Noone else can decide your reality ...only you can decide your own reality.

2 comments:

  1. The ultimate love affair is when the self meets the Soul in the wedding chamber of the Heart.Laila lies within you.

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  2. On the subjective nature of reality, the Prophet Muhammad once invoked, " Oh Allah, show me things as they are, not as i wish to see them". The latest scientific paradigm, the Quantum Revolution has found that the "observer and the observed are the same", implying the subjectivity of human experience.

    The great Sages of the world, from Pythagoras, Plato to Buddah, all the Prophets and Sufi masters recognised that self knowledge is the key to finding a humans true purpose. The move away from subjectivity lies in transcending self consciousness. Incidentally, Muhammad (SAW) was likely following a spiritual path and the incidence of revelation in the Cave of Hira was a culmination of his consciousness. If we explore the first Quranic unveiling, " Iqra", we will find that contrary to it being translated as "read", it means rather, "unify". Unify the world of seperation, of cause and effect with the ultimate gatherdness in your heart and you will come to witness, with your inner eye, that there is only One.

    Islam is Pre-Muhammadi.The Muhammadi unveiling is a clarification of that which was sent before. The rituals of Islam, the fasting, hajj, and many aspects of the form of salaat existed in Arab culture, prior to the advent of Muhammad. He infused the outer cultural symbolism with the inner realism of Light. I say this not to be apologetic and blur the lines that define Muhammadi Islam, but rather to remind myself first and like minded seekers that the Muhammadi unveiling is Ibrahimi, Universal. It is not a small thing that he is referred to as Mercy to the Worlds.

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