Why, while in India in the heartland of Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, in Shantiniketen, and beset on imbibing the wisdom, inspiration and creativity of that great mind would I also encounter the influence or spirit of Steve Jobs? Certainly, two great minds but surely diametrically opposed or unrelated by place and purpose? Or is there some further key they hold to a portal, they know of, which fuses the finest of both their legacies and through which we are being urged to enter?
By Vonnie Boston
Is it a call to recognise that if combined in some new way the two mighty perspectives and contributions, will take us up the evolutionary ladder whereas focusing on just one and excluding the other spells disaster. Currently such division is very apparent and maybe threatening our very hope of advancement.
The conjoined streams along with other encounters had me conclude the time must have arrived to contemplate and restate some matters that are too often overlooked; such as what does the blossom know of the fruit it shall eventually become – perhaps the bough has some knowledge of it, from bearing the product over the years, but what of the roots, they cannot see, but do they know that the first fruits are but the first season and there are many such seasons to follow and through it all they will remain the foundation and food supplier spurred by the rain and the sun?
And so in man, what does the young one know – full of blossom and bluster buoyed by the spring winds – pretty or handsome, wherever, and although he can see his grandfather, his uncle, his mother’s mother, does he know how that will be his future? Probably they sort of see it but very rarely think of it or even less, today, understand that one day all the present stirrings within the animal propagation machine are merely the current propulsion and that in time they will surmount that chemistry and an alchemical change will run through their comprehension and convert the animal into a far greater knowing instrument with senses to detect a far wider realm? Or is that not for their current incarnations?
A few splendid beings have dropped onto the earth from time to time already in the fruit season, they have been spared all the trappings and chorus and dance of the blossom phase, they have leapt direct from the fruit, I suspect, of their past incarnations, or some such, and so can lead us … but sadly they don’t always get the chance and especially in this past century and current era we, the mass, the blossom battalions, have marched forth and too often erected such material barriers that none but a few can see through or over them and even those who may speak of the fruit of the years will, too often, only be thinking of vintage wine to fuel their animal natures, yet further; but there are a tiny few who know better and one day will herald the seniors, not pity them – but pity, too, is all the seers can have for the fools still dancing in springtime when their summer and autumn have long since passed, as again is too often the current case. And even sadder, many of those long lived ones, never fruit either as they have been moulded by the youth culture to think they are not worthy once their physical forms become less powerful and that wrinkles or any sign of something that is not blossom must be abhorred so they hate themselves and consequently poison their systems and become sour and shriveled and so, of course, give the young ones the very reason they need to dismiss them and cast them aside… the consequence is a fruitless society, a fruitless life – some spot it early and chop themselves others just dive into moods of depression; drugs or drink are another escape route – while today’s society continues to polish its wardrobe – its physical cladding – convinced there is nothing more than the body to his being… and so continuing to starve his soul…and bankrupt society.
And that’s why the memory or is it presence of Steve Jobs, keeps jumping about me – still shouting and firing off tantrums, and unprintable language, true to his nature, but only because he’s desperate that A) I recognise him and B) I listen – like the young 4-year-old, tiny Indian beauty, cloying and longing for my attention just now. In her case, through delicate dancing picked up from her society and then a burst of drawing or singing to demand I look her way. She’s too young to know whether I’m a suitable target i.e. important by modern Western man’s reckoning, all she knows or is drawn by is the vibe that sustains us all – the love unconditional which she detects, as a bee finds the right flower, as she’s yet to be indoctrinated in that ethos of admiring only success and material displays on a person. Pray she never learns that lesson, and here in Shantiniketen that might just work for this society projects a pocket of pure wisdom and joy, fashioned and perfected by splendid followers of that genius and seer, Rabindranath Tagore, by perpetuating his principles of lifestyle and message that only through creativity which is our only way of capturing undreamed of visions can the new be transmitted.
So the arts, when repetition is eschewed, are revered and are the wellspring of the new that will hoist us onto the next step of evolution’s ladder and save us from floundering on aimlessly in a surfeit of materiality intoxicated still by spring blossoms – and although such conclusions must have come at the close of life for that other genius, Steve, it must be that he was thwarted by a life cut short to convey them to the mass market so I see he is now anxious, no desperate, to find a way to reinforce a new mix as only he can present it to enable the growth presaged … and lead the West to see how a union with the inner majesty or spirit will enable a far more advanced being …
So his message was like a mighty injunction and a last ditch effort, to rescue the Western critter for despite all its shortcomings, which he now sees so clearly, he loves it too and realizes how much more it can be and achieve through a union which he absolutely knows is the future direction, now, but as he’s also too much aware from his own life experiences how difficult it is to make that understood by the masses, he like the little girl, has resorted to screaming for us to awaken the finer sensitivities, as per Tagore, in all peoples, as he too has seen such a union is our only path. A diet solely confined to high tech and science or to art leaves us always as the cart minus the horse but a fusion of both they have both realised (Tagore always knew it and no chance again, surely, that in the autumn of his life he named the newborn who later excelled in the sciences and economics and became the next Nobel recipient from Shantiniketen, none other than Amartya Sen*) would be necessary to see the vision and then translate it – without the vision what/where the coding/blueprint to go forth? And so , I conclude, that is why right here in Shantiniketen where the ideals are enshrined he’s sent a tangible messenger, so I surely must recognise the link and convey it to all. As yes, a mid career IT whizz guy, now a vice president at one of the world’s biggest high tech companies in California’s Palo Alto campus/shrine was introduced to me and in the course of a very general conversation he frequently mentioned Steve’s name, with great admiration. Without his appearance I would, of course, never have been thinking of Mr. Jobs!
He, the high-flying vice-pres., himself, is a product of Shantiniketen University, and seemingly represents something of the possibilities of the new man as he stressed the need for man to embrace both the latest advances in technology but never lose the inner awareness, the heart, which he still loves re Tagore…but he said he fears something of those values could be eroded even there in the community its first Nobel laureate founded as people begin to embrace only the commercial success of man’s endeavours. Our high tech man was just back visiting Shantiniketen for a week to link with his old classmates, and family, plus hopefully find a wife – but that’s another story! But without his presence and my meeting with him by chance (whatever chance is) I could never have made the link and seen the connections that are the crumbs tomorrow’s Hansel and Gretels are to follow if they hope to make it out of the woods.
Those who laid them are our mighty seers, such as Tagore and what we need to comprehend is they only did it because they have faith in us still, despite huge frustration, (particularly on Steve’s part who was never one it seems for embracing patience), at our seeming slowness in figuring; but slow and steady still prevails, most likely, but at last I now see it’s a combination of the two approaches plus what Jobs has added through noting the wisdom of Tagore. But now he’s becoming more than exasperated at the sight of younger men steeped in that Asian wisdom yet ignoring it and going totally for his reputed Western flavour when now well ahead of that thinking he’s acknowledging its limitations and is beseeching the youth to note it alone is not enough – it all has to be brought through together, a combination, his presence implies, but also in a manner which syncs with modern parlance which the young guys from Eastern perspectives can do, so long as they avoid tossing out their inherent heritage and becoming white-washed into the pallid Western mindset.
“No!” you can hear Jobs roar, it has to be a combination for just as the white thought he could master and control through his systems, he can’t! He must incorporate and live whatever new seed is berthed from a total union … then what a giant leap we will see develop…providing the new shoot is nursed with the utmost care and propagated to ensure we all taste its fruit.
The message was loud and clear – such a mighty yet further advancement put into modern concepts is what is needed to topple the Trump-ing (win at all costs) baseless, behaviour and trivia stamp of Western times, which may cause some to lose heart but no, that’s not necessary, for the trend is almost at its apex (note the cosmic wink there – that word is ape until you tack on the ‘x’ ! – and nothing wrong with that according to Darwin’s steps up the ladder but hey, even he noted, we are past that point now so why the backward somersault in the mighty white house and senates, one ponders?) but take heart and remember what goes up must come down – but this Time don’t lose the babies in the excrement and bathwater of the crumbling crass mix – no, finally, hopefully, as Tagore too reminds, we will arise and go now and this time it will be a fusion of east and west of north and south and from that a central compass point will be found that knows nothing of bluster, bravado, bombs and hate. But how, when and what the mechanism – well, that’s why we need to tap into Steve again – what better man for the Job! – but sorry Steve, that sweet little girl she is at her wiles once more disturbing every thought you/I have. But never mind, for here I’ll leave it over to the reader who will be so much wiser especially if they are of the group that has ears to hear and eyes to see etc.; and if not. what’s a millennia or two between evolutionary steps or hopscotch for those still deaf – dead to the world asleep. .. ?
To them I say just run your eye over Tagore’s comments from an essay he wrote for the Parliament of Religions, more than half a century back and which seem even more pertinent today; and they may rub a blink of slumber from you yet! Also reflect on the point from the fruit end of his journey, when he concluded that although he was distraught and sometimes despondent by man’s brutality, wars (especially WW1 and WW11 – he died in 1941 – before it was concluded) and seeming breakdown of civilization, he still had not given up on the belief that the inner majesty of man will one day triumph…
“Civilised man … must be in touch with his soul and the eternal soul of the universe which is in him and all things…
“Ages and ages have passed, dominated by the life of what we call self, which is intent upon seeking food and shelter, and upon the perpetuation of the race. But there is a mysterious region waiting for its full recognition, which does not entirely acknowledge loyalty to physical claims. Its mystery constantly troubles us and we are not yet fully at ease in this region. We call it spiritual. That word is vague, only because we have not yet been able to realize its meaning completely.
“We are groping in the dark, not yet clear in our idea of the ultimate meaning at the centre of this world. Nevertheless through the dim light which reaches us across the barriers of our physical existence, we seem to have a stronger faith in this spiritual life than in the physical. For even those who do not believe in the truth which we cannot define, but call by the name of spirit – even they are obliged to behave as though they did believe it to be true, or, at any rate, truer than the world which is evident to our senses. And so even they are often willing to accept death – the termination of this physical life – for the sake of the true, the good and the beautiful. This fact expresses man’s deeper urge for freedom, for the liberation of his self in the realm of the limitless where he realizes his relationship with the truth which relates him to the universe in a disinterested spirit of love. ”
Now the link with Steve Jobs seemed to be reinforcing the need to embrace every word in the above but infuse it all through with the latest tech approaches or rather ensure or understand that such advances are not advances unless they enhance and ignite further man’s innate and finer heartfelt wisdom…
The combination was present in the mid-career, Vice President who incorporated the influence of both streams in a way not available to Jobs either but which in passing the baton forward he “knows” puts the seeds in place for such advancement through union. And the product or rather vision of such a union was also put before my eyes.
Make what you will of it, but here is how it happened and seemingly “told” me the season for it all may not be so far off for there too that same week, in that seminal city designed and built by Tagore, where so much has and still is nurtured by and through delight in the creative faculties, which form a bridge to the soul, I also met a finger of what we can be. It was in the form of the tiniest child – a one-year-old, abandoned; but only by man. His astonishing composure and demeanour inspired me to wake in the night after I encountered him at a charity spot for sick children, and write his seeming message in poetry as it is one for all time and has been presented in past times too – but will we, now, with all our finest attainments in science and technology, to hand, and as reminded by Jobs manage to see and incorporate the wisdom and spirit encapsulated by Tagore and step through into the new portal, this time; or will the species just gallop on in the race of greed and self and remain oblivious to our inner truth and even our name embodying our destiny and nature – manKIND? It was a seeming confluence of those two mighty streams that put the new baby shoot before me, as some new form of living parable, but I leave you to decide if he/it is to survive and the product of the Union of the two will take us through the portal:
This Time … ?
He was as the pond
The lotus blooms in.
Still; deep, eternal,
A tiny boy – but
Not a wriggle,
Not a sound.
Just standing, stock still
In his rusty old iron cot.
Impervious, unmoved
By the sweltering heat
And howls of others
so abandoned.
A tiny dot
Aloft in a giant soul.
An exquisite miniature,
A repository of man’s noblest facets.
Mirroring back the
Wisdom of worlds
Which You, I, We,
have yet to fashion
a ‘scope to see …
From the depths of his
Gaze – never wavering –
One saw, no, just sensed,
the ocean of oceans –
And in some timeless instant
Gained an empowering taste;
A fleeting fragrance, of some of
Its mighty tributaries,
Who have flowed this way:
Anand, Tagore, Gandhi
Aurobindo, Mandela, Siddhartha,
Saints, Joan and Paul, Rosa Parkes,
M. L. King, Mother Teresa,
Brother Andre, Lennon and Lao Tzu.
But stronger still
was another awareness.
He brings, portends, the seeds of a
Higher vision for the race of man:
Beyond its current reach –
A season will follow and
Eclipse all ill if you
But listen – this time…
****************************************************
* “It was a day of rejoicing at Shantiniketen. A baby was born to the daughter of the secretary of the great Indian poet: Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate in literature, and he was asked to name the newborn. He called him’Amartya’ – the ‘immortal’ . Then the poet blessed the child saying, ‘I can see that the boy will grow into an outstanding person.’ Amartya had his schooling in Shantiniketen and Tagore’s words proved prophetic.” from Amazon books site.
Vonnie Boston is a painter and writer from New Zealand. Her publication, Souls -The Pike Miners – Their Eternal Essence shows her art and style. Contact via: bosvb@yahoo.com
