Applesauce of a Saucy Bohemian : Arrogance, Pride, Vanity- the futility of it. 

 I am a bohemian. So, all of the true things I will write about are shameless lies. Contrarily, the orthodox, the cerebral, the ‘right-minded’ have all along been ‘writing shameless lies that are true’. I can see the brick-bats coming. Balderdash, ‘bakwas’, gibberish, senseless rantings of a trifling mind…But do bear with me, what have you to lose ? After all, the bleat of a maverick is several decibels lower, softer than that of a traditionalist, wee bit of a cacophony in a pervasive roar all around. 

Let me assure you, it's not entirely casuistry, sophistry, tautology, whatever ; what one intuits as true in common parlance is an esoteric subjective feeling, bereft of universality. For, all appearances are, in essence, maya - a veil that hides the truth, says Adi Shankaracharya. 

 ‘It all seems real but as it is constantly changing, it is not real ‘ -Gita. Impermanence is the only abiding reality. 

So, Truth, by implication, is hopelessly deceptive. Where ignoramus see white light, the ‘enlightened’ see seven colors of rainbow. The lump of iron looks solid but scientists think of it as a stitching of ‘hollows’. The intellectual ponders an expanding universe, wrestles with the question, ‘will it keep expanding forever or tire out ,and begin collapsing on itself ?’ Dark matter may hold the key but as of now they remain in dark about matter dark. The popular mind is more earthy. It sees an immovable earth, a rising and setting sun determining its existential rhythm. We can’t hear all sounds, can ‘see’ only a small range of the broad spectrum of light. Conclusively, our sensory perceptions are woefully inadequate to grasp the truth. 

 On a spiritual plane, we are mere puppets performing to a script, unknown and unknowable to performers, a cosmic play, ‘lila’, enacted by the Great Puppeteer, God. Plato is spot on with his ‘Allegory of the Cave’. What appears real are mere shadows of reality, which itself remains unseen, unfathomable. Reality is the reflected image in a mirror, never the 'object' reflected. If such be the case who can claim a copyright on things true ? And how justifiable is any display of arrogance, pride and vanity, as individuals, as a collective ? 

 Though the words Arrogance , Pride , Vanity are used interchangeably, they are subtly different. Pride accrues from achieving something or being part of an illustrious collective. Vanity is ‘what we would have others think of us’. Pride ,thus, has a substantive base on which an opinion of self is built, but vanity is empty, a pretense, an affectation . In fact, the old meaning of vanity was futility. ‘Nothing deceives its possessor like vanity.’ Vanity seeks the attention of others on slender, unjustifiable grounds for pride. 

 Arthur Schopenhauer makes this distinction stark, elegantly explicit. ‘Pride is an established conviction of one’s own paramount worth in some particular respect; while vanity is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others and it is generally accompanied by the secret hope of ultimately coming to the same conviction oneself. Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at appreciation indirectly from without.’ Vanity is reveling in a self created world of megalomania. 

 Arrogance is what an overflowing pride and vanity results in, a detestable behavioral manifestation. It scorns, mocks ,ridicules the worth of others ,is blind to other points of view, is deaf to dissenting voices, is presumptuous of its own infallibility.

It behoves people’s representatives in particular, to be conscious of these distinctions in their public affairs and in their deportment. They epitomize two collectives concomitantly- the political class and the nation. They should be all the more beware the magical phantasmagoria, maya, that incubates a false sense of permanence, and fosters human frailties. It is a Lucifer out to trade souls for vanities. 

 That brings me back to my starting block. What then is true ? The only worldly truth is, “ you came here empty handed and you will leave empty handed . What is yours today belonged to someone else yesterday. And will belong to someone else tomorrow “, Lord Krishna. Rest are all ‘lies’. 

 I see Lucifer doing the rounds in our socio-political life.