Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Miracle of SubConscious Mind

The Alchemist
Read this Novel very long back….
Choice of books always varies from person to person…and of course perception plays a bigger part in liking or disliking a book….
Particularly this Novel proved my theory…
Being a book bee, got few friends in the circle who are the same , When discussions used to go on books…every one were astonished to know that I never read Alchemist…..That’s how I happened to read it…

Story in Brief…
There lives a shepherd who is safe and sane with his work and earnings, he is in love with a wool shop owner daughter and dreams/plans to get married to her.
A continuous dream taunts him daily, a dream which contains a small boy telling this shepherd to go to Egyptian pyramids where he can find a treasure with which he can lead his next life very luxuriously…
Initially he will be very skeptic to go ahead with that dream…he goes to a female who is capable of interpreting dreams, and he asks her to interpret this dream and guide him accordingly. For that she demands half of the treasure he is going to get, which makes him take his step back.
Later on, the dream becomes a continuous dream, coming every night.

He happens to meet a stranger who encourages him to go ahead with his dream and reveals himself to be the King of some xyz kingdom.
King’s instigation works and Shepherd sells away his sheep and with the money he is set on the journey.
To go to Egyptian pyramids, he need to stop ahead before and from there as no conveyance is available; he needs to go by walk.
After reaching that stop, he will be fooled by some thief’s and remains with no single penny.
Curses himself for coming so long based on dream..but later on will determine to go ahead, starts working in a glassware shop for more than a year.
With the savings he is again set on the trip to Pyramids.
There he will be not able to find any treasure as dreamt but will be caught by thief’s who again will take away his unused savings .
One thief, on knowing that Shepherd is there from a long place, asks him why he was there….
For which shepherd is compelled to tell his story of dream, listening to which the Thief will start laughing and will tell him that some time ago even he had a dream of having treasure somewhere in the east beneath the tree of a shepherd’s home.
Listening to which shepherd will feel delighted as he now understood where his treasure actually is.
That’s where story comes to an end.

Somehow I didn’t like this novel at all. I hold a quite different opinion from rest of all readers of this novel I found till date. Haven’t found anyone till date who said that they found this novel bore, on the contrary this is found to be the most inspiring novels and best work of Paul Coelho which taught to chase the dream to yield it.
When thought deep, may be Paul Coelho wanted to tell the same and succeeded in telling the same as a lot of people understood that, but inspiration and motivation is something which is very subjective and varies from person to person. Again depends on the level of strength one have when it comes to Inspirational and motivational works.
In discussions, I heard different opinions from friends, a set of friends who like inspirational & motivational books and a set for whom to inspire & motivate the novel needs to be speaking in a very strong, unbeatable and impeccable way.
I too fall in the second set and I like authors who can really inspire as if Ayn Rand J

Why to Think Aloud about a book which doesn’t have anything to impress as such?
Is it to tell everyone not to read as you didn’t find anything much interesting in that?
Answer is a straight “No”.
Took this novel to write about, as it taught me a subtle way of psychology when thought in depth.
When 100 people say something to be right then of course it is becoming right.
If 10000 people say a book is good then the one person who don’t find it appealing starts thinking if he missed out anything in that, and as everyone is claiming that to be the best, maybe it is.

In my childhood, I happened to know about one Telugu Author Novels, his name is Gudipati Venkata Chalam, he is very famous for Feminism.
Thought of reading his works, but couldn’t, as my dad warn me not to.
I happened to see a lot of people or rather intellectuals talking about the inspiration chalam gave them.
That droved me to read his works and I started with THE BEST novel by the name “Maidanam” (Which meant Ground).
It is a very small book of close to 190 pages which I was able to complete in a stretch of 2 hrs.
Aftermath was a bit weird as I started feeling that I was there sitting in a Red light area for 2 hrs.
That’s how the novel was ( My stance) and I couldn’t find any point why it became a inspiration for so many so called intellectuals.
I have a friend who is highly intellectual, so my curiosities lead to ask him why and what he likes in Chalam works.
He answered, “Being a male, he is very open to feminism and the way he portrays”.
I was bewildered to listen to such a response from such a sensible person and asked him what book made him feel so and what all the books he read are.
Then he mumbled, I didn’t read much other than his Musings and that too for 40 pages.
Then I came to understand why Chalam became a famous writer and how.
Is he is a good writer or not is obviously pertains to one’s own perceptions but should not be just because someone else says it is.

The same theory of 100000 people claiming him to be the best.
My friend being sensible enough still was in an impression that chalam is a good author as everyone is applauding his work.
When I told him the story of Maidanam and asked him to tell me one point about feminism, he answered that he need to read it and confirm.
After reading, he even started wondering what made him think Chalam a good author.
So the Core physcology of on and average human being relies on the impression his brain got.
Subconscious brain…..It plays a major role….
How sensible a person may be, when he happens to listen continuously from people about some work to be the good, his subconscious brain receives those and forms a quite a good impression and that’s how one start like/dislike few things/people without any prior opinion

A better example is… I have a friend who hates some XYZ political party very much. When I asked why he hates, he couldn’t give a solid reason.
When thought he himself came out with an answer that, because from his childhood his family keeps on supporting some other party and opposes this XYZ party, it left an impression in his mind and that’s how it worked.

A simple question…
When Subconscious mind got that amount of strength..then there are many situations where in a lot of people say something is right which I find grossly wrong….then why all those people’s words couldn’t get hold of my Subconscious mind????
Because your brain was THINKING, this is more strengthened food for Subconscious mind… J


So as a sum up, the lesson was, don’t let any insensible statement takeover the subconscious brain.
Keep THINKING in all possible ways…..
--Srujana

4 comments:

  1. Overall,ur statement is very good...but,talking abt chalam based on 2 or 3 books....????!!!

    i really liked the last line.."don’t let any insensible statement takeover the subconscious brain."......

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  2. I completely agree with the core idea that you wanted to communicate which is the power of repetitive suggestion on subconscious mind. The word of mouth has worked wonders for some pretty inane of films and wreaked havoc on some of the better films. It can also be taken as what you call the result of everyone thinking that it should be good because everyone else seemed to like it.

    I can not however comment on the Chalam aspect. I never read any of his works.

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  3. Taking example of the hindi movie-
    Jaane tu ya jaane na, movie in which amir khan's cousin made his entry into bollywood.
    Its a boring,low budget flop movie in real but Amir khan is considered as a great actor so this movie was seen as interesting! by the people and collectively they all liked it as the impression the people made about it was like that of an Hit movie.
    Believe yourself n watch this movie alone,theres nothing great in this movie. Its a flop film.

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  4. మైదానం – ఒక సర్రియల్ (surreal ) నవల:
    Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely, that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in “an absolute reality, a surreality.”
    – The Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton,1924

    మైదానం నవల్లో ఏది నిజం, ఏది కల్పన, ఏది కల, ఏది ఆలోచన,ఏది అపోహ అనేవి ప్రశ్నార్థకాలు. కానీ, అన్నీ మనకు తెలిసిన లోకంలో జరుగుతున్నట్లుగానే భ్రమింపజేస్తాయి. ఈ కారణంగా కథలో జరుగుతున్న “కాల్పనిక వాస్తవాన్ని” భౌతికనిజంగా పరిగణించి, చలం పంధా బరితెగించిన పంధా అని అప్పటికే నిర్ణయించేసిన చాలా మంది పాఠకులు, ప్రతిస్పందించండం మొదలుపెడతాం. ఒకసారి ప్రతికూల ప్రతిస్పందన మొదలైతే, రసస్పందనకు మిగిలింది అభాసుపాలే.అందుకే,ఈ సాహితీప్రక్రియ మూలాల్ని లేక ఉద్దేశాల్ని గ్రహించకుండా ఈ నవలను సాధించడం అపోహల్ని కలిగిస్తుందేతప్ప ఆర్ధ్రతను కాదు.

    ఈ నవల, నాయిక రాజేశ్వరి మానసిక చేతన(conscious),ఉపచేతన(subconscious),అచేతన (unconscious)ల అభివ్యక్తి. రాజేశ్వరి అమీర్ తో నివసించే మైదానం అణచివేయబడ్డ శారీరక,మానసిక వాంఛల ఫలసిద్ధికి సాక్షాత్కరించిన మాయాలోకం . అదొక ప్రతీక.అదొక బలీయమైన కోరిక. అదొక కాల్పనికవాస్తవం.అమీర్, మీరాలు రాజేశ్వరి మనోజనిత కాంక్షలు.

    ఒక స్త్రీగా రాజేశ్వరి లోని శారీరక చైతన్యానికి సరిదూగే పురుషశక్తికి అమీర్ ప్రతీకైతే, మీరా స్త్రీలోని మాతృహృదయ పరిపూర్తికి చిహ్నం. స్త్రీలోని మూలభావనలైన (basic instincts) ప్రేమవాంఛ, మాతృకాంక్షల కథ మైదానం.

    రాజేశ్వరి-అమీర్ ల కలయిక, సంసారం-దాంపత్యం- నాగరికత మాటున అణవేయబడుతున్న శారీరక చైతన్యాన్ని అందుకోవడానికి, హిపోక్రటిక్ సామాజిక విలువల కూర్పుని కాలదన్ని, కేవలం ప్రాధమిక (rudimentary) కాంక్షల్ని ఆకాంక్షించే విప్లవానికి సంకేతం. మీరా తో రాజేశ్వరి ప్రేమ, తన వంచిత మాతృకాంక్షను ఆవిష్కరించే ప్రయత్నం. మీరా రాజేశ్వరికి కొడుకు,తమ్ముడు, ప్రేమికుడు, ఆరాధకుడు,రక్షకుడు. అమీర్ – మీరా- రాజేశ్వరిల మధ్యజరిగే ప్రేమ-ద్వేషం-మళ్ళీ ప్రేమలను అర్థం చేసుకోవాలంటే ఫ్రాయిడ్ మనోవిశ్లేషణ ( psychoanalysis ) సహాయం తీసుకోకతప్పదు.

    చలం ఇందులో స్త్రీస్వేఛ్ఛని ప్రబోధించలేదు. ఎవర్నీ ఇలా సంసారాలు వదిలి కాల్పనిక మైదానాల కోసం పరిగెత్తమని చెప్పలేదు. అణగదొక్కబడిన స్త్రీత్వం సాక్షిగా, ఒకధీటైన సమాంతర ప్రపంచాన్ని సృష్టించి అందులో ఆ స్త్రీని సంతుష్టురాల్ని చేసే ప్రయత్నం చేసాడు. సంసారాలూ,దాంపత్యాలూ ఇలా ఏడిస్తే, స్త్రీలో జరిగే మానసిక విచ్ఛిన్నతి (fragmented consciousness)ని ఆవిష్కరించి, సమాజానికి ఒక హెచ్చరిక జారీచేసాడు.

    ఈ సిద్ధాంతాలనూ, సాహితీప్రక్రియలనూ,ఆలోచనా విధానాలనూ నేపధ్యంగా తీసుకోకుండా మైదానాన్ని చదివి అర్థం చేసుకోవడం కష్టమయితే, అస్వాదించి, అనుభవించడం అసంభవం. చలం రచనల మీదున్న అపోహని ప్రాతిపదికగా తీసుకుని లేక “సామాజిక సృహ” అనే మరొక హిపోక్రటిక్ టూల్ ని ప్రమాణంగా తీసుకుని మైదానాన్ని బేరీజు చెయ్యాలని చూసినా మిగిలేది అనుభవం కాదు అపభ్రంశమైన మానసిక సంతులన.

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