One’s destination is never a place, but a
new way of looking at things.
- Henry Miller
For long man has inhabited the planet as
a wanderer and hunter-gatherer motivated primarily by need for food, shelter
and better survival options. It was the onset of agrarian revolution few
thousand years ago that brought a sea-change in the lifestyle of nomadic man,
and most of wandering tribes started a settled life and made a new beginning.
Some wandering groups could still be traced around the globe, who could not
accept a settled life like the vast majority. However, deep within his psychic
layers man is still a wanderer, and with revolutionary changes in transport and
communication the wanderer in man is trying to revisit his past in a different
setting. It seems that itinerant existence is deeply ingrained (whether by
design or by default) in deeper layers of man’s psyche and we might be witnessing
a return of the nomadic life albeit in a different format.
I
We are all travellers, even when not
traveling in the usual sense; we do travel in time even if stationary in space.
Time is an important parameter that constitutes and imparts meaning to being,
and it’s this parameter that has been one of the difficult notions to grasp,
even for hard core scientists. In scientific terms theory of relativity goes to
the extent of imparting time a relativistic character that could in principle
change with the person who observes provided the observer is in a state of
relative motion with respect to the system being observed. And that brings to
the fore the element of subjectivity – a realm so familiar in literary pursuit.
Nomadic man travelled in search of food, security and better survival options.
That was the modus operandi for millennia until evolving and thinking human
mind brought forth the transformation heralding an agrarian revolution. Things
changed for most of humanity although some wandering groups kept following their
earlier life styles. Prominent among them were the desert dwellers known as
Bedouin, Kochi in Afghanistan, Roma in Europe and Banzara in India; these and several
other groups could not permanently settle down even when most of mankind
decided to call it a day. Some historians see a linkage between Romas and Banzaras;
the two could possibly have a common history. A recent DNA study of the Romas has
revealed their connection with North Indian Dalit communities. Indian Council
of Cultural Relations organised a conference [1] to discuss some of these
issues. The conference concluded with a resolution that Roma people should be
recognised as part of Indian diaspora. Currently there are an estimated 20
million Roma people scattered all over Europe and Americas. Bedouin nomadic
groups too are estimated to be around 21 million strong and are known to
support themselves by goat and camel herding.
What was it that stopped these wandering
communities from choosing a settled life? Whether it was due to an innate
irrepressible urge to constantly move on, embedded deep in their psychic
underground, or an inherent incapacity to adapt to settled lifestyle – could be
debatable, but one thing was certain - man’s psychic architecture that emerged
during billion years of biological evolution could not be washed clean by the
new settled lifestyle changes prompted by cultural transformation. The ever
present dualist in man kept raising its head at regular intervals to remind him
of the dilemma of existence. The ever-wandering human groups’ presence even to
this day could be a vague manifestation of the same. A dualistic trend of
settled (physically) and itinerant (mentally) conscious being could help
understand some of the human situations. Present essay deals with some
queries of this kind.
To begin with nomadic man was like other
animal species which he truly is. The bipedal animal started on its forward
march some six MYA (million years ago) when this offshoot of the chimp embarked
upon a process of bio-cultural co-evolution. It is likely that standing on two
legs accelerated man’s cranial evolution. On the other hand the cultural
changes could possibly have an impact on evolutionary process, and that may be
reasonably true for human brain [2]. As his brain grew in size (proportion to
body mass) and complexity, complex neuronal networking started emerging. Along
with this dualistic trends started manifesting themselves. The body cared for
its survival as in other animal species and looked primarily after its
autonomous needs. The mind did take many roles and dimensions: primarily it strengthened
the autonomous need thereby giving mankind greater control over the
surroundings. Agrarian revolution followed by a settled life transformed man’s
thinking in a significant way; he now had enough time to manipulate things, he was
now a ‘manipulator’ who acted not only for survival but for comfort,
entertainment, power and prejudices. However, his mind was now destined to go
beyond this limited role. Man had his (her) own hierarchy of needs, and among
this list was his (her) frequent, although not too long, forays into the realm
of the ‘transpersonal’. Man is often referred to as an amphibian leading two
different lives – his autonomous physical existence as a living being like
other animals, and his other existence beyond the autonomous self that may
include his cultural life, sometimes referred to as his homonomous
existence.
Understandably the conscious mind is in a
position to assert of another existence that transcends the self where one
could embrace aspects of life beyond the need to focus on immediate survival.
Complex human mind is a by-product of the
architecture of brain with strange and baffling neuronal circuitry guiding its
actions. It has already been stated that the cultural transformation too had an
indirect role in the process of evolution thereby making it a bio-cultural
co-evolution. Whereas neuro-scientists were busy trying to comprehend the
causes and repercussions of these baffling neuro-connections [3, 4], the artist
in man has effectively used this intricate network to fulfil his other
requirement – to search the meaning of being and to bring an element of
aesthetics to it. Life is what it is, yet it is up to the man to search methods
and means to impart it a meaning and a purpose, and make it worth something,
although many of his actions have thus far highlighted the opposite.
Man like other species had a long nomadic
existence. The settled lifestyle was a consequence of a thinking mind and
physical necessity; this could not stop the wandering mind from doing what it
could do best – to wander. To wonder at the life and mind, and to wander in
space and time - trying to discover new avenues to wonder about – that was the
predicament of a man who was no longer obsessed merely with earning his daily
bread. That may not be true for a vast majority of humans who still
have to struggle for earning their
livelihood. However, anyone with reasonable livelihood had sufficient scope to
satisfy this need of the mind; arts and literature were but a manifestation and
an outcome of this need. Man, once physically rooted in a location, ceased to
be a wanderer but could not do the same when it came to his mind. At the
psychological level he fully retained his nomadic character. It was a kind
of dual existence; man truly was now an amphibian in yet another sense, his
autonomous physical existence often in conflict with his other existence, as
part of the whole (homonomous existence), and his settled physical existence
often in conflict [5] with his ever restless and itinerant mind.
It is not the purpose of this essay to
delve deeper into the making of the human mind and certainly this is beyond the
scope of this essay. That is a complex and growing field presenting serious
challenges to scientists and some of its peculiarities are open to enquiry with
the new developments in neurology – a puzzling account of neuronal connections
and cross-connections. Whatever the origin of all these, one thing was certain
by now – mind, destined to float over the
neuronal network, gradually emerged to remain unstable, restless, floating
incessantly on a turbulent surface. In every sense mind was to be a traveller –
a traveller in space and time. And an account of the space-time travels
and travails of this wanderer is given a special name – LITERATURE.
Very often I try to feel in my bones the thrill
of Marco Polo’s historic journeys or great Chinese traveller Huen Tsang’s
journey to India and back covering a time frame of twenty years. Not an easy
travel by any account. I often ruminate about innumerable other
traveller-seekers spanning the length and breadth of the Himalayas. There was
no tradition then to keep detailed accounts of the proceedings but the essence
of their searches did pour out in the form of verses and jataks (short
stories); in fact much of the Vedic literature has been a collection of all such
experiences. Those who could not afford to face the uncertainties of such an
arduous travel did so by sharing those moments from others’ travel accounts.
Many great voyages witnessed different outcomes – the discovery of the Americas
among them. Fifteenth century European voyages were definitely among the greatest
feats of humans comparable to or even surpassing the earlier great travelling
feats. The urge to discover the world for oneself guided all great journeys;
the motive determined the future trajectory. While Columbus, Cortez and their successors,
conquered lands and collected fortunes, travellers like Huen Tsang discovered
an ideology and a way – a path, a Tao. The former was a story of adventure and conquests
often followed by unfair acts and practices, the later reflected attempt to
conquer the inner domain.
The world out there and the world within both
reflect often the best and worst of life and living. Over the millennia the
world out there has transformed almost beyond recognition with wilds giving way
to settlements. As a consequence life and its primal cause, the biosphere, have
gradually come under stress; as a consequence the ecological changes are
bringing forth issues never heard of earlier. The world is changing out there;
it is also changing the layers of psyche and its architecture. The
irrepressible human urge to explore the planet may soon come closer to a dead
end; there may not remain much in the planet to explore. The regions beyond the
planet are immense but then exploratory voyages beyond earth are still a distant
dream. On the other hand man’s efforts to explore the inner world would
continue which can still offer unlimited possibilities.
The perennial traveling mind passes
through different territories and, taking notes, glides on. It often discovers
links that connect it to almost everything on the planet. At one epoch it was located
in Marco Polo’ cranial cavity, at other instance it’s with Huen Tsang. Besides
the two celebrated travellers innumerable others have their way and say in the
scheme of things. Every inquisitive mind has the urge for a first hand
encounter, and when this is not possible, it tries to remain connected to the
world of experience available in literature – a truly human experience. Power of language
and communication has given the species a tool which can help him comprehend the
reality without the necessity of going through a first- hand encounter – hereby
enable him(her) to live many lives in one. This dualism- nay multiplism – has
its rewards as also its curses; reward in the form of innumerable choices and
curse in the form of conflict and failure. This mode of mind’s travels is going
to stay; dealing with this challenge is among the toughest ever faced by man.
The nomad of earlier days did not possess
a choice, under the circumstances that was the only way out. Itinerant man of
today has a choice and if one decides to leave the comfort and security of home
to explore the world [6, 7] around there seems to be an inner urge, something
built-in in the psychic back waters. Or there may be another point of view- the
comfort and security of home is now available all over the globe. Well this may
be true for some tourists, but we must distinguish between a traveller and a tourist.
There are innumerable examples of people taking risks of all sorts to discover
things their way that may satisfy their inner urge to wander and to discover. “We
travel, initially, to lose ourselves, and next we travel to find ourselves”
[Pico Iyer].
Often I find myself in the shoes of Marco
Polo or Huen Tsang, and sometime among recent travellers [8 - 10] like Paul
Theroux, Collin Thubron and Bill Aitken; but never even once I thought of
reliving the travel accounts of Columbus, Cortez and the like in spite of their
great spirit of adventure. But for the unfair and unjust practices that
followed, these voyages could be counted among the greatest of human feats.
I find Huen Tsang’s travels and travails
of particular interest as he was among those who carried with him the enquiring
spirit of man and a thirst for conquering the world within, that truly needed
to be conquered. As the world events unfold we shall witness the great voyages
of discovery exploring the depths of human mind. It seems that the primary
purpose of a travel is to lose oneself to be able to discover oneself
(recalling Pico Iyer). The details of the methodology will be travel-specific
and traveller-specific. In fact almost all journeys are in that sense dual
travels [11] – out there and also within.
Steady in Motion
In some respects mind is like a bicycle –
stable and steady while in motion, and unable to stand while at rest; a balance
is possible only while in motion. The two wheels unable to keep the system
steady, require a kinetic energy to balance the bike to a steady state of
motion; that is a good analogy for mind. And remember one has to learn to
balance both – the bicycle and the mind. A further modification would be useful by adding
an accelerating device. Think of a bicycle with a motor attached to it and with
its brakes removed. This unique traveller (mind) is on a motorbike with
acceleration facility but without brakes. You have to learn to occasionally stop
it and how you do so defines your own self to some extent. In some Hindu and
Buddhist practices, such as in Raj-Yoga and Zen, we find effort and procedure
to bring the bicycle to a state of balance even when not in motion.
Dual exploratory travels in space and
time – that is the characteristic feature of all great travels. However, the
direction and motivation in a given case is that of the specific travel and the
traveller. The wanderer of yesteryears saw a big change with settled life style
and that determined much of his life and work-pattern. After the agrarian revolution
two other transformational events took place in a small time-span, the
industrial revolution in eighteenth century and the electronic revolution [12] that started in the second-half of
twentieth century and is continuing. These developments had their impact on
life and mind, and as a consequence yet another lifestyle change seems to
emerge, the permanence of settled life giving way to semi-settled life. The
human cultural transformation has taken a full circle. With the
revolutionary changes in communication and transport and availability of frequent
travel options a large population is already living some diluted form of a
nomadic life.
II
Sitting on the balcony of the fifth floor suite in the hotel I reflected
upon the travels of the wanderer mind and some of its travel accounts. From the
balcony of my room in the hotel overlooking the Hudson river I felt myself to
be a wanderer in my own way – an itinerant individual who just two months back
was overlooking the magnificent central Himalayan range in Kumaon Hills.
Often do I ruminate upon the architecture of mind and wonder what
could be its better description than a traveller – a traveller extraordinaire, a
wanderer par-excellence, a dualist (nay multiplist ) tat-twam-asi. And what
name could be given to its travel-accounts other than thought; travel-accounts
of this unique traveller is also known as literature. Its peculiarities are in
some sense better described by some unique concepts in modern quantum physics,
important among them being superposition.
Like atoms or electrons conscious mind keeps changing places,
creating a thought pattern of its own, seeking the new along with the familiar
and incessantly looking for a meaning of being which may or may not be there. A wavelike fluidity imparts to mind a
capacity to travel along two or more paths simultaneously something akin to
what one encounters in quantum objects.
The World Created by Wandering Atoms
Physics and astrophysics remind us in no uncertain terms the origin of
our solar system, the universe and above all the miniscule atoms that construct
the world including us. I know now that the atoms that construct us have also
been wanderers traveling for long in space and time inhabiting many stellar
cores in their long and tedious journeys. Progress in cosmology brings us
closer to the stellar evolution and evolution of the atoms that construct the
world. The atoms like hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are essential
ingredients of living systems; all atoms other than hydrogen had their origin
in the stellar wombs where they were virtually cooked for thousands of years
before they started shaping the solar system, the planet earth and the world of
living beings. And remember – not one
but several of stellar wombs. Not only humans but the atoms that
construct them have been wanderers migrating from one star to another to be
cooked and refined for the onward march. Poets are known for their
imaginative powers but this kind of situation is even beyond their imagination range:
Universal [13]
Atoms of my body
and yours too
Cooked in stellar kitchens
at ten million degree.
Mould in molecular configurations, patterns and
themes
Amino acids, proteins, cells and genes;
Herald and define my very existence
Essence of my being, interior and outline
The path and process of my presence
and yours too.
Yet, the billion years gone by
Roll down the blood stream, the bone marrow
And above all
In hundred billion neuronal cells
Performing incessant fire dance.
It’s time for ‘ I ‘ to step in
Widen shoulders, look around
Think, feel and proclaim
Uninhibited universality
Not just a figment of poetic imagination,
A hard scientific fact
The universe within me
And yours too.
More Revelations
The notion of
the universe within us now seems not merely a poetic metaphor, it is real; that this is so
is based on scientific findings. And not only this, we have to be prepared for
other revealing notions from scientific quarters. Darwin’s theory of evolution reveals
another aspect of our hunter-gatherer past; we have come to our present state
of evolution after having gone through innumerable intermediary stages. The
closest in these are the species of apes with chimpanzee being the closest and
it was some six million years ago that this homosapien branch started evolving. Taking even a small chunk of this long
evolutionary journey would be enough to tell the epical story of long and
arduous space-time travels of this species, the humans.
Globalisation has started influencing our
everyday lives, be it in information or in employment, commerce or economic
inter-dependence. Transport and communication have made it possible to remain
moving without the hardships associated with it in the past. A recent United Nation’s
report (published in newspapers, January 2016) indicated the number of people
living in countries other than those of their birth to be around 220 million
which was about 3.5 percent of world population. Incidentally, Indian diaspora
constitute the largest of such population standing at around 16 million,
followed by Mexicans at 12. Of course by no means this is all due to love for
travel only, there are many other considerations. This only indicated that in
the three centuries of industrial revolution if this could be the scenario then
in another three centuries, a whopping 10 percent of world population may be
constituted by itinerant dwellers – a new class who in the real sense do not
belong to any specific location and, in good many cases, country.
Often I ruminate that consciousness or
awareness at the highest level is nonlocal by default and by definition too. I
strongly feel that our psychic architecture is rooted deep in our long past
that may include various stages, as homosapien or earlier as chimp or ape.
Whatever be true a conscious mind is comfortable while in motion in its truly
nomadic manifestation.
It could very well be the beginning of a new
chapter in the epic story of humans, to be titled: ‘Return of the Nomad’.
[1] ‘Roma Conference and Cultural Festival’, organised by Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR); 3-day event starting February 12, 2016.
[2] P J Richardson and R Boyd, Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, University of Chicago Press (2008).
[3] V. Ramachandran, The Emerging Mind, Profile Books Ltd, London, 2003.
[4] R Penrose, The Emperor’s New Mind, Oxford University Press, 1989.
[5] C M Bhandari, Entangled realities in Literature and Science, Muse India, Jul – Aug 2012.
[6] Ed Stafford, Walking the Amazon, Virgin Books, U K, 2011.
[7] C M Bhandari, Travel and travel writing, Muse India September-October, 2013.
[8] Paul Theroux, Happy Isles of Oceania, G P Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1992.
[9] Colin Thubron, In Siberia, Chatto and Windus, Great Britain, 1999.
[10] Bill Aitken, Seven Sacred Rivers, Penguin Books, India, 1992.
[11] Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, A Bantam New Age Book, 1991.
[12] Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, William Collins and Sons, 1980.
[13] C M Bhandari, Universal, PoemHunter.com, 2013.
