Of Haunting Hunger

Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one way or the other; it’s a cog in the wheel of life

By Mukesh Sharma

No living creature can beat it. None can conquer it. It is invincible. It is master of all the forms of life. All are its slave. Each and every living being knows it and experiences it. Be it king or commoner, all serve it alike without question. Yet it is unquenchable. It is undisputed and unchallenged ruler of the living world. From tiny protozoan to huge mammals, all work for it. Like God, it is omnipresent and all pervasive. It is basis of life on the earth. Even mother Nature nourishes the world through it. Of course, its name is Hunger – the haunting Hunger.

The Haunting Hunger

 

All through millions of years, it is the hunger that has developed a simple monkey into a present day complicated man. It is the hunger that has taken a savage man from cramped cave to commodious castle, from ordinary house to spacious bungalow, from bullock-cart to space satellite, and surprisingly enough, from Adam and Eve to nearly 7 billion populace on the earth.

Hunger has amazing dualistic character. Hunger is life as well as death – a crying baby is born with hunger and a decrepit man dies with hunger for ‘heaven’ on death-bed. Hunger is love as well as hate  – hunger for more and more ‘my’ – my kids, my house, my money, etc. is ‘love’ and hunger for dislike is hate. Hunger is progress as well as regress – hunger for betterment results in progress and hunger for other’s possessions leads to regress. Hunger is knowledge as well as ignorance – hunger to know the secrets of nature is knowledge and hunger for ego-serving is ignorance. Hunger is devotion as well as distraction – hunger for goal is devotion and hunger for the gratification of senses is distraction. Hunger is a man as well as woman – hunger of a man for a woman-body is man, hunger of a woman for a complete man is woman. Hunger is God as well as human – hunger beyond self is God and hunger for self is human. Like the imagination of a mind, hunger can be expanded to infinity and can be shrunk to a size of an atom. Hunger is both constructive and destructive.

Through human perspective, hunger can be divided into four categories:

1.       Physical hunger

2.       Psychological hunger

3.       Intellectual hunger

4.       Spiritual hunger

Physical hunger can be described as a natural or biological hunger – hunger for food and hunger for sex. It is common to all animals including man. Food is first priority and sex is next. Food is must to live and sex for the furtherance of progeny – both essential for the perpetuation of life on the earth.

Psychological hunger is a distorted hunger emanating from unbridled desires. A man turns epicurean or hedonistic seeking sensuous satisfaction – wine, woman and wealth – an insatiable lust. Fire can’t be extinguished with fire. The uncontrolled ‘hunger’ for wine, woman and wealth has been the cause of the downfall and doom of wealthiest emperor/knight/regimes.

Intellectual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of the secrets of nature; it leads to discoveries and inventions. Credit for all kinds of advancement in human society so far goes to intellectual hunger only. It is this hunger that has produced great many philosophers, writers, poets and scientists -  Aristotle, Shakespeare, Kalidaas, Albert Einstein, Stephn Hawkings –  the list is very long.

Spiritual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of unseen and unknown super natural power so named God. What is God? Where does God live? How to meet the God? All these intriguing questions have been nagging man since the advent of man on the earth. However, this spiritual hunger has blessed the world with Lord Rama - God incarnate, Lord Krishna - God incarnate, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and Guru Nanak; it has bestowed on timeless scriptures like The Upanishad, The Gita, The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, The Bible,  The Holy Quran, The Guru Granth Sahib.

Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one or the other. Hunger is the cog in the wheel of life.

The Forbidden Fruit

(Humour)

The Forbidden Fruit

Nothing attracts like sex and all Adam’s sons are the natural victims of enticing Eves

By Mukesh Sharma 

T

he Paradise was lost the day Adam and Eve descended in Eden Garden. The story was very well couched in immortal words (blank verse) by a celebrated 17^th century English poet John Milton through his epic poem Paradise Lost’ and its first version was said to be brought out way back in 1667.

Courtsey: gettyimages.in  

Forbidden Fruit  

The poet’s observations are the deep reflections of man’s psyche:

“What hath right to do with sleep?” “Better to reign in hell, than to serve in heaven.” “Solitude sometimes the best society.” “Long is the way and hard, that out of the hell leads up to light.” “ Awake, arise or be for ever fall in.”

-John Milton, Paradise Lost

But to the utter surprise of common man, the ‘paradise’ appears to have been lost once again very recently since the day of John Milton after such a long time when a ‘promising’ actress leveled wild allegations of sexual harassment against the member of her own fraternity that too not in any Court of Law but on a TV channel where the popularity is grown.

Shuttling between USP (Unique Selling Point) and TRP (Television Rating Point), the ever hungry TV channels started vying for the most coveted opportunity to pass themselves off as a custodian of moral values, and of course, the oppressed women folk.

  As usual, the ‘sexy’ news, made even years old entombed ghost, #ME TOO, to wake up from slumber,  take twists and turns in grave, and come out with a grunt - #metoo, #metoo. . . 

The sussy story doesn’t end here. Some self styled puritans - judges, actors, ministers, journos  and so on, also jumped on the bandwagon, perhaps, just to ingratiate themselves. The great proponent of TRUTH, Acharya Rajneesh, popularly known as Osho in one of his discourses quips:

“If you are doing something wrong against the established practice or law, do visit a religious place of your choice regularly. If you are exposed at any point of time, there would be at least sizable number of ignorant fools who would willingly vouchsafe for you, and stand witness for you for being a gentleman.”

Always in full swing, ever ready Rahul Gandhi tweets:

“It is about time everyone learns to treat women with respect and dignity. I am glad the space for those who don’t, is closing. The truth needs to be told to bring about change.”

Replying to Rahul Gandhi’s moral sermon, @Ra-Bries, a twitterite sarcastically tweets:

“Yes sir, I completely agree with you. History is a witness of your claims and commitment of treating world women with dignity. That is why you never let the women reservation bill get through and created all possible hurdles in the Triple Talaque bill. Also do you know who was Sukanya?”

Needless to say, the sex-war is eternal. It is beyond the intervention of Oracles of Law and United Nations. It is purely regulated by the Law of Nature. It is well said:

“Opportunity gives rise to thoughts; thoughts give rise to desires, and desires give rise to action.”

  It takes two to make a ‘marriage’. No moral standard of any religion can restrain this (sex war). It is not just libido but the lust also. In Lady Holland Memoir, by Sydney Smith writes:

“How can a bishop marry? How can I flirt? The most he can say is, ‘I will see you in the vestry after service’.”

Says a devout Muslim with a sheepish grin, “Frankly speaking, all the Hindu want to be Muslim in youth, and all the Muslim, want to be Hindu in old age.”

The lure of Forbidden Fruit is pristine and proverbial. Men would be men, women would be women. Ram and Sita live in the Ramcharita manas of Tulsi Das only. But Ravana  is out. Though his effigy is burnt every year on the eve of Dussehra, he is immortal, imperishable, immutable and indestructible. He is everywhere -  in small villages, big cities, high public offices and allegedly, in the Parliament too.