Monologue

By Abhijeet Madhusudan Ghule

Hello everyone. I’m Abhijeet. I come from the beautiful city of Nagpur. Actually I was thinking about something and I wanted to talk to you about the same. But why do I need to talk to you all? Good question. Oh… forgive me. I have a habit of complementing myself about anything I do. As I said, “Good question”. But again, why?

I met one of my friends today in the morning. He had come to the juice shop where I go after my brisk walk. He came there with another friend. He’s a writer, but more a philosopher, I think.  Our discussion started with… I don’t know exactly on what topic, but what he told me at one particular point, it blew my mind.

He asked me, ‘what is the first thing that comes to your mind, when I say, Yin and Yang?’ I had some basic information about the topic. I casually answered, ‘china, kung fu, and the chinese monks. What he told me next was… I can’t put it in words, that feeling. I actually had Goosebumps.

He told me, ‘Yin and Yang are the two sides of the same coin. This chinese figure, it comprises of two figures in a circle, equal in all aspects, physically. One of them is called Yin, the dark or the black figure, is feminine and represents, darkness, mysteries, leisure and coldness. Whereas Yang, the white or the light one is masculine and represents aggressiveness, open mindedness, light and warmth. One of them is a pulling force and the other is a pushing force. One keeps pulling the other and the later keeps pushing the other, nonstop. Two equal in all aspects looking figures, but with totally opposite, by nature. You must’ve heard people saying that they are two different sides of the same coin. It means where there’s love, there always will be hatred. Where’s light, there always will be darkness, goodness and evil, gods and demons, and what not.

Let me put it to you the other way, just as that “So called” writer told me. From the basics that I just shared, we can safely conclude, where there’s liking, there will always be disliking. It’s almost the same thing, I know, there’s almost no difference till this point. What he told me, that usually it is considered to be a wider or a macro concept. What if, it is only an individual or a narrow concept? For example, everybody likes good and fresh food, right. Which one of you likes bad or stale food? On one hand we say, where there’s knowledge, there’s light. Then why do some people say, ignorance is bliss? Just assume for a moment that you are a… a… scientist or an engineer. But when your vehicle has a problem, you go to a mechanic, right? Despite you being a scientist or an engineer, you don’t have the knowledge of repairing the issue in your vehicle. Now considering the foundation of the concept of Yin and Yang, your mind, where the light of knowledge exists, there also exists the darkness due to absence of knowledge.

Having said that, whatever we’ve been told about this concept, either that was wrong, or what I’m telling you, that’s wrong. But if what that writer told me is correct, then why the example of the mechanic I just gave you is correct? But if we consider that the so called writer is correct, then would it not mean that this logic applies to all the aspects of a human life? And if the answer is yes, why did they lied to us, for so many decades? But if they lied to us for so long, then… I don’t understand, I mean, are we such kind of easy to crack fools to trust everything that anybody tells us? But if we actually are fools, what and how the light of knowledge that we have, is helping us out of this? I need help from you all on that only. Not just that, I also want to know, if Yin and Yang do really exist or co-exist, then it’s just one concept. What about the other philosophies that we know or follow in our life? There could be many more things that we’ve interpreted as they told us, but the real meaning could be different. It’s only a possibility, but it cannot be denied. Why do we get influenced by what others have to tell us? There has to be something. There has to be something other than this. There has to be… wait… what about the ring that holds the two figures together and contains them both within? Would you please help me out of this?

By Abhijeet Madhusudan Ghule