Thursday, August 19, 2004

Beginnings are always better than endings ...

... Then, everything was possible. Now, nothing is.


"In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.

In that land of beginnings spirits mingled with the unborn. We could assume numerous forms. There was much feasting, playing, and sorrowing. We feasted much because of the beautiful terrors of eternity. We played much because we were free. And we sorrowed much because there were always those amongst us who had returned from the world of the Living. They had returned inconsolable for all the love they had left behind, all the suffering they hadn’t redeemed, all that they hadn’t understood, and for all that they had barely begun to learn before they were drawn back to the land of the origins.

There was not one amongst us who looked forward to being born. We disliked the rigours of existence, the unfulfilled longings, the enshrined injustices of the world, the labyrinths of love, the ignorance of parents, the fact of dying, and the amazing indifference of the Living in the midst of the simple beauties of the universe. We feared the heartlessness of human beings, all of whom were born blind, few of whom ever learn to see."

~ From The Famished Road by Ben Okri

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

...thn evrythin was possibl nw nuthin is.
this is beautiful. but dnt agree with th rest of it. once read a hindi poem in school. sumthin abt never wantin to attain moksh. the gist was, dnt snatch away my right to die (change). totally agreed with tht. want to go thru this crazy world again n again n again...

. : A : . said...

sneha - Thanks for sharing your perspective on this.