Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Perceptions of Paradise

Paradise is as paradise will be. That goes to say that it’s simply beyond the words and imagination of the average man. And no matter how much thought is expended the concept of paradise is beyond rumination. And its better that it remains that way. Otherwise it steals the mysterious pleasure of believing in something that is in fact so hard to believe. Thoughts of verdant lushness iridescent in its pristine glory, exhilarating moistness and an inescapable if not delicate fragrance in the air that is breathed, flowing elegance in all that is to be seen, harmonious silence in the surroundings to be heard, magnificence personified in all that is to be touched and the most unimaginable sense of harmony, peaceful happiness, unity and joy that surrounds you everywhere that you see are what run through the confines of my imagination. Consider the sheer imaginative possibilities at hand if we have the combined brainpower of the entire world at our hands. And yet, I am quite convinced that even that version of paradise is going to fall far short of what it indeed is.


How about questioning the very existence of paradise? There have been and there will always be people who beg (sometimes demand) to digress from the belief in the concept of paradise. I am not interested in trying to prove or disprove its existence but simply to revel in the thoughts of paradise never the less and by doing so inspire others to get their thoughts rumbling on how paradise could be.


Could the earth ever have been a paradise to live in? It may or may not have been depending on your believe in Darwin or his Creator. I feel that looking at things from a Darwinian perspective spoils the whole show - there is no God; Man evolves from the ape; the earth we live on was once a big flaming ball which just happened to be there and then decided it had had enough of solitude and burst in self pity and that makes our very existence a mere happenstance and by the way if you happened to have overlooked, in this scenario paradise does not exist. Ah, but from a Godly perspective things become so colorful. You get to talk and write about what you are now reading.


There have been historical references to paradises on Earth; any place that had been so beautiful in its pristine existence that it required this particular label. But then humans would enter this place of thought provoking beauty and would eventually destroy it for a myriad number of reasons. And beauty of place is something that has always been associated by the more eloquent groups of people who talk about paradise and its glory. But if ever you happen to come across a helpless and destitute soul, who is besieged by all the problems that the world has to offer and goes to sleep worrying about where his next scrap of food might come from or if it will ever come at all, and worries about tomorrows future for his family, it might be interesting for you to find out his version of paradise. Maybe he would muster up an imaginary world where he is free of all worries around him, where he goes to sleep with a full belly and a well fed family and rests assured that it will never change for him. Maybe he never even thinks about the verdant lushness that comes to my mind or for that matter the elegance of sight. For him that’s paradise.


Maybe that’s all there is to it. Maybe it really is futile to think in such eloquence about paradise when you know your thoughts are a wild congregation of impossible thoughts. Impossible for me but definitely not for the person whose thoughts of paradise I just described. Now there’s something attainable. Why not try to materialize at least that person’s paradise. How many of us have thought or tried to act along those lines?


No matter how one person views paradise to be there’s always going to be another one who thinks differently. We are a bunch of people who think disparately and are lost in their own endeavor to attain paradise, building it in our imagination and hoping to make it true…not in this lifetime for sure. If only people would think about each other and try to build someone else’s paradise the world would be so much a better place to live in. But rest assured, paradise is as paradise will be and it will be the same for each and every person who thinks about it…even though they might think differently.