Thursday, December 25, 2008

The conversion from Raja Gidh to Simurgh.....

The pessimism, the depression, the sadness in me takes a new form now. Please don't take is as an end, it is not. It has taken a new form and it will grow. I knew it as a bird, who used to live within me. I used to call it "Raja Gidh" (King of Vultures). I thought it is a vulture, as it always reminded me of my past, always reminded me of what is dead. It derived pleasure from past memories and lamented on their non-existance in present. Whenever i asked it, "Why do you think there's pleasure in pain?". It said,"I don't know". Maybe, it was Raja Gidh because it didn't know.

But now, it knows that it is a part of a greater reality. Now it knows that it must end in hope, it must end in optimism, it must end in beauty. Now it knows that it is not alone. Now it knows that it is not what it thought it is. It is not king of vultures. It has a Collective Self which includes its own individual self. It is "Simurgh" (means 30 Birds as defined by Attar in "The Conference of the birds"). The Simurgh within me is now growing, and is identifying its parts in other individual selves. Maybe it should make them realize that they exist within it, but this collective self is never short of hope. The tool which must be used is the language of those individual selves, but the idea must be of the collective self.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess there is a lot of bad around and you can only replace it by good. Thinking about bad won't help. Having said that, you can't not live in oblivion too.

I sometimes think whether a Simurgh, as it is a collection can have a king of vultures. Does it has multiple personalities weaved into one? Ohh forget it =p

Rehan Damani said...

I think It definitely can hav king of vultures. And i think it is not a collection.. but a collective self.

Khurram Ali Shafique said...

Yes, Simorgh is where one and many are the same thing. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and Simorgh is the sum of the parts. Vultures do not usually make it to the seventh valley, from what I have seen in history and literature.

Rehan Damani said...

I'm thinking again...Maybe the seven valleys exist in every human being. That is how i can feel the conversion. That is how my vluture converted into Simurgh....

Anonymous said...

Yes I guess you transform yourself through each valley until you are not only one but as Sir said where one and many are the same thing.

ReeBz said...

can you please define a bit what is "simurgh"?

Rehan Damani said...

Simurgh means 30 Birds ("Si" means 30 and "Murgh" means Bird). Well it is a concept in The Conference of Birds (by Attar) about collective self. The Conference of Birds is a story of Birds who try to find their king, go through seven valleys (full or hurdels) and finally only 30 birds are able to find their king, which is actually their Collective Self.

ReeBz said...

Oh i see ,i was actually pronouncing it in a wrong way,in the English accent.well even if i had been reading it properly i would not get its meaning still :P cause i dint know that "SI" means 30.

Thanks for adding up in my info :)