STORY TELLING

Last week I sat before the idol of Lord Ganesh – one that was made of clay – to perform Ganesh puja. As I started looking at the idol, I was amazed at the features of the idol – the sharp eyes, large head, small mouth and large ears et al. I recalled, with amusement, the number of stories that I had heard about Lord Ganesh. I instantly admired our forefathers who were great story tellers – who wove facts, fiction and spun stories with lot of inbuilt symbolism so that we remember them forever. The fact we regale children with such colorful stories even today, after aeons, is quite remarkable.

Looking again at Lord Ganesh I wondered at the symbolism embedded. The large head symbolizes his enormous wisdom and the large ears – quite obviously because he has an elephant head – indicating that we need to listen more and be very attentive and correspondingly a small mouth, perhaps signifying that we need to talk less! One of his tusks is broken reminding us to retain the good and discard the bad and also representing that sacrifice is necessary for learning and gaining wisdom. His small eyes ask you to concentrate and focus on your goals. His large trunk represents the discrimination and the ability to discern between good and the evil. In modern parlance perhaps it signifies flexibility and adaptability! His large stomach conceivably contains all things the known and unknown universes or possibly indicative of the fact that we need to digest the good and the evil! Funny enough, a mouse is supposed to be his “vahana” or vehicle. The rationalists may taunt at such an impossibility but again remember all this is symbolic and allegorical – it symbolizes all our desires. Just as a mouse is restless and keeps running all over the place, our desires run amok and if we are to be at peace with ourselves and the world, we need to keep this under control! I can go on and on – but I guess you get the drift.

Stories about Lord Ganesh abound and who can forget his ingenious move of going round his parents thrice and claiming the coveted mango fruit? Lord Ganesh came to my rescue once – albeit in unusual circumstances. I was in an overseas location to attend a difficult project meeting with the client (who said project meetings with clients were fun?). I had to defend some bad deliveries from our side. We introduced ourselves and one of the clients asked me “what does Ganesh mean?” That was my chance and I immediately replied “It means remover of all obstacles and I am here to remove all the obstacles in solving your project issues!”  Most of them at least had a smile and the meeting, needless to say, went off much better than what I had anticipated.

Like I said, our forefathers were great story tellers – I love to watch Mahabharata on TV even now. It is still fascinating and several people have written different interpretations of that epic. A modern story teller like Craig Jenkins says Epics are holistic depictions of life – and continues that stories in The Ramayana and The Mahabharata are metaphors and allow us to raise questions! However, have we now lost that art of storytelling?  Is it meant only for grandmothers to narrate stories to their grand children? I don’t think so.

Robert McKee in a HBR article entitled “Story Telling that works” says “Trying to convince people with logic is tough for two reasons. One is they are arguing with you in their heads while you are making your argument. Second, if you do succeed in persuading them, you’ve done so only on an intellectual basis. That’s not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone.” Recent studies have empirically shown that people’s beliefs can be swayed more effectively through storytelling than through logical arguments. The researchers say that persuasion is most effective when people are "transported" to another place using a story. And corporate world is getting onto this bandwagon in a big way. Our forefathers knew this all along. So if you are not a good story teller, start right away!

And coming back to our Lord Ganesh, after completion of the celebrations, I was saddened to bid him farewell. It was no ordinary farewell for I will be immersing him and losing him. But again on second thoughts, I marveled at the symbolism of this whole ritual. The idol that was worshipped as GOD the previous day is completely dissolved – maybe it signifies that this entire creation is nothing but names and forms behind which there is an unchanging essence. The names and forms are ephemeral and we need to transcend these and look for that unchanging reality.

What is that unchanging essence? 

FAITH

After the advent of Internet and emails, we receive a spate of mails enclosing a whole lot of material – most of them that you can trash after a desultory glance. However, a few of them are worth preserving and reading time and again. I am reproducing one such material – a conversation purported to be between a Professor (Pro) and a Student (Stu). It unfolds as follows:

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with GOD, The Almighty. He asks one of his students to stand and asks him:

Pro    : So you believe in God?

Stu    : Absolutely, Sir.

Pro    : Is God good?

Stu    : Sure

Pro    : Is God all powerful?

Stu    : Yes

Pro   : My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn’t. How is God good then?

Stu    : Student is silent

Pro    : You can’t answer, can you? Let’s start again young fella. Is God good?

Stu    : Yes

Pro    : Is Satan good?

Stu    : No

Pro    : Where does Satan come from?

Stu    : From… God

Pro    : That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Stu    : Yes

Pro    : Evil is everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything, correct?

Stu    : Yes sir

Pro    : So who created evil?

Stu    : No Answer

Pro   : Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?

Stu    : Yes sir

Pro    : So who created them?

Stu    : No Answer

Pro   : Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me son, have you ever seen God?

Stu    : No, sir

Pro    : Tell us if you have ever heard your God?

Stu    : No, sir

Pro   : Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of your God for that matter?

Stu    : No, sir I am afraid I haven’t.

Pro    : Yet you believe in him.

Stu    : Yes, sir.

Pro   : According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that son?

Stu    : Nothing sir. I only have my faith.

Pro    : Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.

And the fun really starts now.

Stu    : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Pro    : Yes

Stu    : And is there such a thing as cold?

Pro    : Yes

Stu    : No sir. There isn’t

The entire class becomes quiet at this turn of events.

Stu    : Sir, we can have lots of heat, even more heat, super heat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is not heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. It is a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat sir, but the absence of it.

There is pin drop silence in the class.

Stu    : What about darkness Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Pro    : Yes, what is night if there isn’t darkness?

Stu    : You are wrong again sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light…but if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it is called darkness, isn’t it? In reality darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

Pro    : So, what is the point you are making young man?

Stu    : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Pro    : Flawed? Can you explain how?

Stu   : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue that there is life and there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing God as something finite that we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of life. Now, tell me Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Pro    : If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Stu    : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes sir?

Pro    : The professor shakes his head with a smile realizing where the argument is going.

Stu    : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an ongoing endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist, but a preacher?

Pro    : Silence

Stu    : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s brain?

The class is in an uproar now!

Stu    : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain, felt it, touched it or smelt it? … No one appears to have done so. So according to the established empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

Pro   : (The room is silent. The Professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable). I guess you will have to take them on faith, son.

Stu   : That is it sir. The link between man and GOD is faith. That is all that keeps things   moving and alive.

This may be an imaginary conversation, hilarious at times, but certainly has some profound messages that need a deeper contemplation and discussion. It is a good exposition of dualistic thinking, a malady which all of us are afflicted with. A closer scrutiny is warranted!