A great master of letters in his magnum opus has stated that the
mind, in its own place, can make a Hell of heaven and aheaven of hell. It is a mercy that this accursed potentiality of the mind takes shape
Only very rarely, if at all, as an after-effect of some idiopathic imbalance in equilibrium. Otherwise,
Life would cease to be interesting and become instead a cruel mockery and a tragi-comedy. A real story,
Long relegated to near oblivion, now surfaces in my memory and it clearly illustrates this syndrome of
Self- hallucination.
Viji was gifted boy whose powers of absorption and assimilation were truly phenomenal. He was the object of unreserved admiration and healthy envy to his peers. He was the darling of his teachers and a
Pillar of hope to his
parents of modest means. He never stood next below to any one in any
examination Or open competition.
Viji, as usual, was studying diligently one night , in preparation for his S.S.L.C examination due to be
Held a fortnight ahead. All on a sudden, a fly, bee or some other winged pest bothered him, orbiting around his nose . He tried shooing it off bit it persisted in laying siege to him. At long last, he tried to
Swat it with a book. The annoyance stopped, but not finding any trace of his victim, Viji could not avoid
Thinking that the blessed thing had pierced his skull and was lodged in his brain. He began complaining
Of a ceaseless pain in the crown of his head. There was a rapid diminution in his power to concentrate
And he became a pitiful victim of an obsession. It appeared that he was unlikely to be fit in good time to
Sit for his examination.
Viji’s parents borrowed money and spent it like water in trying to find a remedy at the hands of
Specialists
but in vain. At long last, on
The suggestion a well-meaning friend of the family, Viji’s parents rushed him to a Physician at Madras.
The said Physician had already become a household name in the country and abroad, for his unfailing
Methods of intuitive diagnosis and efficacious treatment of physical and mental maladies.
The doctor quickly sized up the situation and arranged an elaborate drama. The parents were privy
To this. A fake make-believe operation was staged and Viji was shown a dead wasp in a basin of water.
He was told that it had been removed from inside his head. By a miraculous turn, Viji became normal
Again and was ready to face all challenges in life.
In The whole tale however took a different turn some years later because of an indiscretion on the part
Of Viji’s parents. Assuming that sufficient time had elapsed to release them from the bond of secrecy,
They let out the truth in a casual conversation. And lo, Viji relapsed into his hallucination which held
Sway over him for long. He found peace only through death. If nothing else, this goes to show that the dividing line between the sublime and ridiculous is very thin. Also that in dealing with cases of mental
Aberration and vagary one cannot be too careful. In fact, it requires the thistledown delicacy with which
One tries to retrieve a priceless gem that you have inadvertently let drop into a pit and a serpent lies
Coiled around it.
Humility.
It is said that real learning engenders humility which makes one deserving of being treated with
Spontaneous respect by everyone. The sequence goes further expounding how one thing leads to
Another exalting an individual to the highest pinnacle of human attainment. Knowledge, it is needless
To stress, is endless, boundless and sublime. As poet Kambar put it, what one learns in a whole life
Is but a handful of sand and what remains to be studied is enormous as the world. Or , as the Greek
Legends would have it, knowledge is unattainable as the horizon. One imagining that he knows
Everything has his road to further evolution closed .The scriptures say that Saraswati, the goddess of learning never stops studying. I deliberately avoid too close commerce with people who have a repulsive Tendency to be emptily arrogant.
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