M Jimmy Chishi
The beautiful mind
What makes a Mercedes a Mercedes?. A Ferrari a Ferrari?. Or why does a Monet or a Renoir, cost millions!?. Well to this we could attribute the aspects of Mind and matter. Materially speaking they are costly because of the material used in their creation, this includes the cost of labor and process of manufacture. The mind value would include branding and the various market promoting devices. However even these do not fully explain!. There seems to exist an unexplained paradigm as to what makes them so valuable.
Mind over matter
In Hindu mythology there is this great challenge of the heavens. A landmark judgment as to which is greater mind or matter. In this chllenge,ganesh and kartikeye(murugan),Both sons of god Shiva,(one of the trinity),compete in this duel, to circumnavigate the universe. kartikeye does the material note and flashes off on his vahan(aeroplane) to complete the task.and this in the most practical of ways ganesh on the other hnd employs the mind,he circles shiva,and in seconds all the gods of heaven including shiva pronounce him winner.not long after kartik returns only to know of his defeat. Its clear that the gods of heaven have favoured mind over matter.
On closer analysis however we find that its not a clash between mind and matter ..kartikeye certainly did employ his mind and like the greek odesseys set on this most interesting adventure but it was his priority of matter over mind that made him loser ganesh understood well the finer lines of this challenge and took the most positive effort to accomblish for indeed shiva was the god of heaven..
Leaving aside gods and myths even in our daily mundane life we are always confronted by this mind-matter isssues Certainly the mind is more important and this only if it beautiful – a beautiful mind ,like those of ganesh.this beautiful mind must be the x-factor, what makes a mercedes a Mercedes
A beautiful mind
What then is this beautiful mind? Is it the all knowing intelligent mind that understands the finer lines of life? Or is it a well organized mind? As far as beautiful form is concerned we have more than seven thousand years of human experience in understanding beauty and though a consensus still is yet to evolve as to what is beautiful!, at least we have some semblance of standards of the beautiful in form.., but what of a beautiful mind!?,..Alas!Still not a single portrait exist. how should we set its standards. The beautiful form can be altered, corrected. Even by plastic surgery but a beautiful mind cant for its cultivated the seed have to be sown. However even though a portrait doesn’t exist at least we can safely say that a mind making the effort to know,with the right intention is a beautiful mind. This beautiful mind has to be constructive besides this mind is far above matter for a beautiful mind can exist on its own but for matter its impossible, beauty is the mind attribution.
And this beautiful mind must be creative. It must bring forth, reproduce for otherwise it dies and is no more beautiful. There is nothing like a beautiful matter sans the mind. beauty is the mental attribution to matter. We all humans have this mental attribute a blessing of Christ our lord and therefore it follows that we all can possess a beautiful mind.
Why do need this? The answer is simple. We all need this beautiful mind because our lives can be so meaningful once we possess/transform …the beautiful mind. and we can contribute most to each other.
The Naga mind
No portrait of a beautiful mind exists however it would be possible to conjecture it. The same is true for the naga mind, we could conjecture it on the basis of how our minds are thinking and this on the basis of information, observation. And so how is the naga mind The naga mind is certainly not beautiful and is suffering from many diseases.. Corruption, triblism, favouritism, ruthless materialism and worse of these the non existence of dignity of labor.it seems a hopless situation and at times we feel that progress has been postponed foreever.
It seem like we have taken the kartikeye path towards accomblishing our task of progress,into this great misadventure of outright materialism without a mind value and Even then we surviv and go ahead..? Isn’t it surprising! In this regards we shouldn’t miss out those so many beautiful minds that are helping this land survive the challenges of this age. However honestly speaking these are not enough. Lots need to b done and this because we Nagas have immense potential. After accepting Christ there seems no limit. We therefore also have this duty to show our Hindu and Muslim.. Brothers the difference Christ has made and this by developing the beautiful mind
Lets therefore pray that we live up to our duty and expectation and grow this beautiful naga mind so as to harvest the joys of heaven in our own soil.
(The writer has done his MA, Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia)
