Eagam Khaling
Once, I was selecting vegetables in a vegetable shop in the vegetable market of Darjeeling town when, suddenly, I met one of my respected gurus. Upon seeing him, I bowed my head in honour. He noticed my greeting and asked, “Oh, Eagam! Do you also come here to buy vegetables?” I jubilantly replied, “Yes, sir, but not that regularly.” He replied hastily, “Alright, Eagam! I’m in a hurry, so you continue your shopping.” Just then, “Okay, sir!” As I said, I accidentally dropped the vegetables I was holding. I began to collect the scattered vegetables on the floor clumsily. At that moment, he stepped closer to me and said, “Eagam! Mistakes happen, but we should not fear them. If we constantly dwell on our mistakes, it will hinder our creative work. A perfect person has nothing left to create because he becomes like God—once he reaches that state, his work is done. Everything is just over for him.”
After saying that much, the guru left. I thought he was trying to tell me that “mistakes may happen while working.” By saying that, he threw stones into the still pool of my mind.
The notion that “God is perfect” has attributed many nouns and adjectives to God. However, my focus here is not on the aspects of God discussed in different religious texts and scriptures. I see God as the Paramāśakti (Supreme Energy) responsible for creating the world and the universe. We don’t perceive God’s presence among us because His creation is perfect, leaving no need for Him to repeat, modify, or recreate anything. What is perfect requires nothing more. In God’s case, there is no need to continue writing, correcting and learning. He does not need to keep coming to us. God is perfect in His own perfection and exists in His flawless creation. We seek perfection in the essence of our nature.
Our creations are like microscopic particles in God’s eyes. We strive to imitate God through our creations. But we humans can never become God merely by imitating Him. If we continue, our work will be complete. In this context, I am reminded of the words of the great painter Salvador Dali: “Mistakes are almost always of a Sacred Nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary, rationalize them and understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.”
I returned home from the market, wondering what to do next. My wife took the vegetables out of the bag and asked, “How many tomatoes are rotten? Didn’t you choose and buy them yourself?” I just remained silent and didn’t even ask for water. I began to think that if I were perfect, I wouldn’t need to buy vegetables from the market, wait for lunch, or tickle the paper with a pen like this!
My wife started to cook food for lunch, but she had no idea we would not have to eat from the day she successfully cooked the perfect food. If we become perfect, our brothers, sisters and friends (humans) will not be able to handle us and will keep us locked up in some famous museum or laboratory. Thinking of a perfectly delicious meal, I went to the kitchen to greet my wife, but she was picking and cutting rotten potatoes. Seeing that, I was reassured because a perfect potato curry cannot be prepared from such rotten potatoes. If it becomes perfect, we will not have to enter the cycle of birth and death. There is no need to keep moving from one creation to another.
No matter how scared or how negative I may be talking, we love to be perfect. I used to advise my brothers and sisters to be perfect in at least their passions. They would ask me, on many occasions, “Which perfect is perfect?” It cannot be said and shown that ‘perfect’ is this or that because perfection is subjective and abstract.
The possibilities of life are infinite, and it is easy to assess and demarcate the subjects and objects of life. Since human knowledge is a subject of social recognition, we are moving forward by creating social acceptance as a way of working. Based on this point, I will give them a definition. For example, no work should be revised, modified, or refined. In this context, I often refer to the “method of doubt” used by French philosopher René Descartes. However, this example cannot be applied to all situations and subjects. If we believe in perfection, these methods will not be effective. Nonetheless, if we consider God a cosmic power, we are inherently a part of it.
By the time I considered it, lunch for the day was already prepared. However, I recalled an interview with Indra Bahadur Rai in an issue of the literary monthly Garima. In that interview, he mentioned that his search in writing literature is a search for God. He stated that he does not know whether he will or will not be able to discover his God. After reading that interview, I started reading his books to meet his God. In the nineteenth century, Friedrich Nietzsche declared the death of God, while the great scientist of the twenty-first century, Stephen Hawking, said that we do not need God to understand our universe. He seems to imply that God does not exist, yet is perfect and unchangeable. God is perfect (exists) within His creation, or there is no use in discussing Him. Hawking writes in his ‘The Grand Design’—“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going (2011, p.227).”
We find God in our thoughts, beliefs, faiths and religions. Even if we associate God with perfection, we cannot fit Him where He is found. That doesn’t mean we keep making mistakes. It is said that a wise person learns from mistakes and does not repeat them, while a fool makes the same mistake frequently.
(Eagam Khaling is a story writer based in Darjeeling)
