“Those Who Love Noise Are Inferior Humans”
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
12
September 2022
“Hujoomo-Aawaaz Se Iss Darja Pareshaan Hoon;
Goya Dahqaan Ke Beech Ek Adad Insaan Hoon”
Shams Shikarpuri
(Exasperated so much by the crowd and noise/As if I'm living with the
rustics)
“Those who
love noise are inferior humans," wrote Shams Tabrizi. His spiritual soul
mate Rumi added ' crowd ' to it and made it all the more comprehensive: Those
who love noise and crowd are inferior humans. V S Naipaul, though not a great
fan of Muslims despite having a Muslim wife from Bahawalpur, Pakistan, did like
Rumi's poetry and he quoted this observation when he visited India, the country
of his ancestors, and witnessed, dirt, crowd and extreme noise everywhere.
Noise and crowd can be off-putting to any sane human. Bertrand Russell used to
say, “Noise is a nuisance to all noetic people."
In mystical
traditions, all Sufis or Mystics prefer 'meditative and unalloyed silence' (Sukoot-e-Subh-e-Azal:
The silence of the very first dawn of human civilization). This type of silence
is always very introspective and self-searching. Our days are spent with people
and crowds. We tend to lose our cerebral individuality when we're constantly
with people. We may quote a famous English adage that two is a company, three
is a crowd, but to those who love to think, even two is a crowd at times.
Have you
ever noticed as to why there's a rapid erosion of intellect from human society
and groups? Because we're all too addicted to crowds. It may not be physical
and often not perceptible as well, but when we're glued to various social
platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, FB and whatnots, we're part of a motley
crowd. When we foolishly discuss and believe that the spurious WhatsApp posts
are oracular truths, we're all integral to the noise and clamour these posts
generate and eventually degenerate us.
'A crowd is
a crow that creates a shrill noise,' is an old Persian maxim. Humans are too
much into crowds and noises. This causes us to lose our voice of sanity and
prudence. Great Sufi Bayazid Bastami used to urge his disciples, “Give yourself
a few minutes in the company of your own self every day because when you're
with yourself, you're with your own self.” Noise and crowd take away our
contemplative selves. Our intellectual individuality is lost in a whirlpool of
noise and the sea of people.
Great
German philosopher and the father of Pessimism, Arthur Schopenhauer always
lived on the outskirts of a city and hardly interacted with anyone. He was
neither an eccentric nor a recluse. He just loved his own company and avoided
people as he believed that interacting with a storm of people would have a
debilitating influence on his creativity. He once famously said, “Every time I
return home, I close the doors to protect myself from the tyranny of human
faces." The German maverick may have been an extreme case who was scornful
of people, there's no repudiating the fact that for an intellect, people and
noise are no less than nightmares. Avoid them for your own good.
-----
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
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/love-noise-inferior-humans/d/127929
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