Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Shadows

I was walking home on NJ streets tonight back from the NJ Transit station. My only companions were my shadows. Here the streets are well lit unlike some of the Tucson streets where there is hardly any light. The shadows were rising and falling as I moved away from one light and went closer to the next one. A consistent theme of rise and fall of shadows.

I felt that the shadow was like our own ego and the lights were like knowledge. As you move closer to the light, the shadow diminishes. Just like as you move closer to knowledge, the brilliance of knowledge lessens the ego and makes you more humble. The more you move away from light, the more the shadow grows and becomes menacingly tall. Just like you move away from knowledge, into the darkness of ignorance, and your ego starts to inflate and become bigger and fatter.

Let there be light. Let there be knowledge.

4 comments:

Karthik said...

Well said..

Unknown said...

what a brilliant thought process.

Unknown said...

Nice analogy..

Found this quote on the web that would be a nice addition to the post:

[Quote]
Partial Knowledge

Shadows appear very big, much bigger than you, but
they have no existence. Smaller the light, bigger the
shadow appears. If it is total darkness, then also
there is no shadow. So partial knowledge,a partial
light,partial vision,brings the shadow. And it makes
the shadow appear very huge, very big. But know it is
just a shadow. "
[/Quote]

Somehow ego fits in very well for shadow here.

Gandalf said...

Excellent comment Amit. Thanks. Appreciate it.