A letter from a brother to a sister
Credits: Sayak Kanjilal
Coming from a person who never actually experienced the love of a sister, and the ever brewing warmth of affection, itshard to fathom this dimension of womanly love. The love of a mother is paramount, in all senses, inclusive of all intrinsic and extrinsic facets of human affection, true, but isn’t it something that majority of us experience right from the dawn of consciousness? And whatever we experience from that age is what we feel as something very natural and we often don’t have the perspective to admire and appreciate the nature of woman because its so much present, and always was. Its like how we all the time fail to appreciate the value of oxygen, which is powering up our very consciousness, and we only feel it when there is a scarcity of either oxygen or the failure of our own apparatus to receive it.
But about a sister, the dynamics change drastically, particularly when you get one at a time when your consciousness is well past its teenage speed, like the river which has already crossed the fast mountainous terrains and canyons and is now eager to seek the comfort of the absolute ocean. Just at the brink of its widening, the cessation of its meandering tracks and growth as a calm entity that now wishes to witness silently the nature of humanity it passes by, the cities, its people, their lives and the various ways they want to use the river for themselves. It doesn’t really mind about people polluting it or drawing its water for their selves, because it has received a taste of its infinite nature, of its sheer strength to overcome and resist whatever obstacles comes in its way, and doesn’t bother to get involved with anything worldly. it smiles past the cremation grounds and marriage grounds alike, it accepts within its bosom the ashes of a thief or a saint alike, tears of a mourning wife or flowers of a temple alike. It flows past the banks where people defecate and the banks where people pray for worldly desires to be met, with an indifference so stout that it almost seems cruel.
And amidst all these changes, amidst all these gross and subtle changes of humanity over the centuries, its involvement with the worldly is only limited to its indomitable will of flowing towards the absolute, the infinite ocean.. for it knows that none other can fulfil it, can establish its identity and complete it as an entity.
However, if a sister comes up in a man’s life who is just about to make a run for his true calling, which is the actual calling of every living soul on this big blue planet, a tributary shoots off from the widening river. Though it has stopped meandering, and is no more interested in diverting its course for dodging obstacles, rather finds confidence in claiming whatever obstacles spring forth, floods them and claims its route to flow, it cant ignore the presence of the tributary. Because it’s a part of itself, a stream of consciousness flowing as similar as itself, and is young, wanting to explore. The little thing moves across, with the same wildness the river had when it started its flow from the mountains, the same vigour and enthusiasm, but in a terrain that’s devoid of any favours of gravity or power, and constantly interrupted by humanity. Because humans know they cant alter the river, so they prey upon the tributary, they try to extract the most out of the innocent stream of sublime water, and often succeed. But the success is short lived, because they forget that the river remains unattached of the world by its own choice, not by nature. And the next monsoon, the flow of the stream which had been dead due to malpractices, again swells up with huge water ingress from the river and progresses towards its destiny.
A sister has the power of rebooting the entire concept of love once again, to show a person the things he cares the most, to let them find hope in times of distress and a smile from this entity has the power to actually unblock negativity like nothing else. A dam well-constructed can hold up water uptoa certain extent, which may seem humongous from the perspective of the ever limiting mindset of humankind, but a smile of thunder can easily crack up the entire structure and let the entire fluid flow free, debarred from any restrictions.
A sister is one who, by her very presence, like the tributary, provides the river with a sense of purpose greater than itself, a purpose of trying to make the tributary meeting the ocean by itself and enjoy the bliss. Her happiness makes the world go greener, her sounds and splashes and gurgles of laughter makes the river feel its importance towards the betterment of humanity, which it completely forgot amidst its grand ambition and sheer volume.
A man learns to see other women as an embodiment of his sister, the sudden craving of lust by looking an attractive woman is a challenge not easily conquered. But its not possible to look every woman as a motherly figure, and thus lust acquires a multinational passport, which hinders focus, abilities and mindset. Enter sister, and her love, and one’s own perception towards women starts a metamorphosis so pristine that it clears the entire dross like a furnace fire and brings forth the pure gold, devoid of any impurities. Love of a sister and its proper reciprocation can make a man get free of the most impulsive challenge offered by nature, as a man starts seeing her in the eyes of every woman who before, could have evoked the fire of desire.
A sister, thus acquired, is a direct blessing of god to help a man understand his true nature and be merged with the infinite, and yet look after the world in eyes of affection that is now not limited only to a few people related to him, but can see the entire world as a thriving parliament of consciousness, of which he himself is a part. A sister is a tributary indeed that actually completes the river, though it may seem apparently that a river completes the tributary.
