Empty Souls, Empty Minds
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
15 December
2023
“All Empty Souls Tend Toward Extreme Opinions.”
― William Butler Yeats
This famous
quote of the Irish poet and Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats assumes greater
meaning in today's times when most of the idlers harbour extreme opinions.
It'll be in the fitness of things to know the exact context behind this quote
because it has a contemporary relevance.
When
Rabindranath Tagore was in England in 1912 for the publication of 'Gitanjali, '
he'd often meet Yeats. In fact, Yeats helped Tagore in the publication of his
book of poetry that had 103 mystical poems. Tagore got the Nobel for Literature
in 1913. One day, Tagore asked the ex-Protestant agnostic who were those people
who would die for their religion, god, country and all such (external)
intangible identities. Yeats said, "All idlers and empty souls" and
further completed his statement, "All empty souls tend toward extreme
opinions."
India at
the moment is teeming with such empty souls and minds having extreme opinions.
"Empty minds oscillate between extremes," opined French author Andre
Gide. See the neo-Hindus, there's one from the South on this forum, in today's
Hindu India.
Muslims are
pariahs and plague as Hindu extremism is on the rise and lumpen elements are on
the loose. These empty Hindus have nothing worthwhile to do except for
displaying extreme hatred for Muslims.
Empty
souls, being empty, always have enough space for all types of negativity to
thrive and assume dangerous proportions. All the extreme opinions that you get
to see on social media and platforms are being generated by empty souls and
minds.
The same is
happening in neighbouring Bangladesh. Read Deep Halder and Avishek Biswas'
latest book 'Being Hindu in Bangladesh: The Untold Story'. It
justifiably claims that in 30 years, there won't be a Hindu in Bangladesh.
Extreme religiosity and Islamic fundamentalism are not allowing Hindus in
Bangladesh to live peacefully. They're being threatened to embrace Islam to
survive just like Hindu Sindhis in Pakistan's Larkana, Shikarpur, Hyderabad and
Sukkur (Sindh Province) are gasping for breath. According to the Human Rights
Report, 2019, all Hindus in Ghotki district of Sindh Pakistan became Muslims to
survive.
The ills
and curses of mankind, viz, god, religion, nationality, provinciality etc.
occupy empty minds and make them go berserk. We entertain extreme views in all
matters because we're terribly empty beings. Just the way, abandoned places are
occupied by anti-social elements, abandoned and empty minds are taken over by
all extremely despicable views and opinions.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/empty-souls-minds/d/131316
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