This is hell, nor am I out of it..." tells Satan to Dr Faustus in Christopher Marlow's play bearing the same name. And indeed how candid is the fallen angel about the ultimate reality of life. For it is the mind that can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven.
The intellect is the womb of all human feelings, spanning from fear, love, hatred, adoration, repulsion and all that which engulfs human heart from time to time.
The flashes of lightning and the thundering clouds are like the sound of apocalypse for some; while for some it is nature in its untamed exquisiteness and beauty. It all depends upon how it is viewed and perceived.
Humans have a tendency to pine for the utopian. The grass on the other side of the fence always appears to be green; the woman of your dreams always outshines your spouse just as unheard melodies are sweeter than the heard once. This is because they are still like the mirage.
Just as a lost traveller in a desert is deceived by what is visible, but is not there, similarly our mind plays all sorts of deceptions. Conquer its unpredictable swings and the world is yours.
The same bars which make a prisoner become aware of his loss of freedom, causing anger and anguish; the same bars, have made and still stimulate many prisoners such as Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, to conquer the loneliness by penning down their experiments with truth both on paper and mind.
Who can forget Anne Frank who poured down her emotions in her diary despite the reverberating gun fire on the road down below and the looming shadow of defeat and death?
A snake is appalling to many, but is a beauty to a snake charmer; a crocodile is frightening to the multitude, but not for a crocodile hunter who desires to shoot it with his cam from the nearest possible range.
It, without doubt is a very normal human reaction, except for those who have a mind-set to mould the moments into a milestone. Yet those who are able to conquer the assumed and presumed fear are those who have the ability to face even the most adverse situations by turning the period into a time for rejuvenation, introspection and excavation of dormant feelings.
Westerly winds
Shelley's call to the West Wind to lift him like a "leaf, a wave, a cloud" is not shared by many. In India, the westerly winds are the harbingers of heat wave.
Yet there are scores who defy the hot onslaught by swaying on a swing hung from a branch of a sprawling banyan tree or splashing in a pond or a stream.
It is always the mind that makes you ignore the real and makes it appear non-existent. Give moments the shape that you desire and you will see how even the most difficult to get on with situations make you get through the maze.
Yet it is inevitable, that a mind which claims to be without fear, must be the one that nourishes an oasis even in the most arid moments. He or she who can make the best of all, even amid the most unfavourable circumstances, are the one , for whom there is nothing but green grass and fields of flowers sprawling till the horizon.
What you seek, you shall find. If you have a zest for life and are not easily dismayed by the abrupt tides which engulf the shore, then you are the one who will survive like Robinson Crusoe even on the most uninhabited islands.
The mind should be like a chameleon, changing its shade with the altering environment. For it is this adjustment of your psyche, to the changes around you that will make you firm and steadfast like a light house in a stormy abyss.
Strong enough to brave every storm and rise like a phoenix after every Tsunami. That is the way to make even hell smell like the blooming gardens of Eden.
Vimal Yogi Tiwari is a journalist based in India.
