In Search of Chaotic Feminine Energy through Storytelling

Why stories captivated and continue to captivate human minds?

What is the secret in stories that glues people together? Why it doesn't care for age, race, religion, color, caste, gender, national boundaries and genetic makeup?

What universal appeal stories hold?

What is common between stories, poems, paintings, sculpture, songs, dance and music?

Why do we remember stories told by our grandmas, poems and songs sung by mendicants, dance or dramas played on stage, paintings and sculpture of great artists and music of any genre?

Well all these forms of human expression of storytelling hinges on one critical factor known as 'feelings'. These forms of storytelling strongly evoke feelings. They do their work silently inside where even words fail to reach.

But why 'feelings' are so important and why do they strike a chord somewhere deep within so strong that we remember them for life?

I think there are two fundamental reasons for this.

First, all living things on this planet have feelings in some form or the other however rudimentary that might be. Humans have it great measure. So do many animals, birds and even plants.

Second, we are inherently designed to many wise choices. Wise choices are more easily attained through the route of feelings than anything else. Through feelings we are made wiser even to the point of being enlightened.

That is why epics like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Iliad, Odyssey are passed down from generation to generation. They all tell unforgettable stories of human wisdom and follies.

That is why stories like Aesop's Fables, Panchatantra, Greek mythology and stories of Hans Christian Anderson are enjoyed by people across the world.

I liken 'feelings' to feminine energy because of its essential fluidity and formlessness that ignites wisdom enabling enlightened living.

Is this the deep secret of living, thriving and surviving as members of this planet and universe?

No wonder ancients understood this aspect very well. The Greek word for wisdom is Sophia representing the female form while Indians have encapsulated the concept of wisdom in feminine metaphors of Kali, Shakti etc.

Well, if it were such a powerful thing then why is it so neglected in today's world?

Today's world as we know it has been dominated by industrial age thinking for the past 300 years where feelings have been relegated to the lowest possible level replaced by the wonders of machines and unprecedented levels of human consumption that followed. It was considered unnecessary or harmful in the world of science, rationality, critical thinking, machines, monopolies, factories, world of few producers and thousands of consumers, world of few leaders and thousands of followers and in a world of few rich people and thousands of poverty stricken human souls.

The last 300 years have been the age of thieves, plunderers, robbers and uncouth inhumane bandits -- man killing man for glory. What type of glory is that and what type of progress is that is not comprehensible to me. 

Now all of that must change if we are to survive and live. Our rational scientific thinking has gotten us to the point from where we can't proceed any more. Global warming is a result. Sustainability of the planet is now threatened. It takes around 7 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food. Wars are leaving scared children in nations without limbs where women are violated and families become extinct.

How long are we to put up with all this rubbish? People are not lowly robots that worship wage slavery in return of food. More the constraints more have been the production of theories to analyze such constraints that produced less long term solutions. The nonsense perpetuated by thieves and bandits have grown to ridiculous proportions. 

This world is no longer tenable. All this must stop. Something more is needed.  

The innate power of the feminine energy must be back. Not in the form of feminist movement pressing for gender equality. Nor it need be in the form of burning bras. It must be restored to its rightful place through its more authentic form -- the form of storytelling. There seems to be no other way. It would complement the male energy for meaningful action to strike a balance that is going to see us through the 21st century and beyond.

No wonder creativity is now being felt as the number 1 skill for the 21st century.

Where this feminine energy would be used?

It would be used in understanding problems, In finding a solution. In communicating, In envisioning, In design. In branding. In product development. In board room strategy, In marketing, In training, In human interactions. In education. Everywhere!

The silent power of storytelling extends the edges of the minds, rolls one edge with the other and intelligently mashes up edges to create new knowledge and beauty. As of today most of this silent power is unutilized.  

What would it create?

It would create chaos, discontinuity, jumps, emergence, self organization -- helping us to adapt quickly to the randomness in the world which is nothing but the manifestation of the inner levels of wisdom resulting from how well the feminine energy flows within. With lower flows and lesser wisdom more is the randomness in the outer world. This flow of vital energy was missing in our grand march to progress. We have time to make up for the loss.  

How would we tap into this super energy after years of neglect? I don't know for sure. But I have a feeling that it would happen by inducing ourselves and others to express their personal knowledge, understanding and wisdom gained through experiences through any form of storytelling for others to feel, visualize and act with their own evolving wisdom. They in turn would tell the world their own stories of struggles, failures and triumphs for others to gain wisdom. And the cyclic pattern would continue.

The cyclic pattern would be: Storytelling --> Feelings --> Insights/Wisdom --> Meaningful Actions --> Knowledge --> More Storytelling

The other advantage would be: different people would learn differently at different points of time reflecting their evoling wisdom with the distinct possibility of instant enlightenment though the stories in their original form would permanently be there to stay. Note there would be less compulsive need for data stream analysis since information and data would be replaced by stories and feelings (the feminine energy flow). This serves us well in real life since when we tackle real life issues and problems relevant data are hard to get by and disjointed as they really are, if not non-existent. However, the most important advantage of this type of learning and gaining wisdom is the relative ease compared to other forms and types of learning.  

Therefore, this type of learning through storytelling, acquiring wisdom forming the basis of creative actions would be there to stay creating meaningful impacts in our lives.

So let the chaos unleashed by this feminine energy begin for us to attain collective wisdom!

Untold Truths

Chinnaswamy Srinivas Tamarindulu in short --- CST looks like a C grade South Indian film hero. Every morning he gets up sharp at 5 AM. Takes bath exactly within 8 minutes. Drapes himself in a white dhoti. Bare bodied, he stands in front of the different idols and chants hymns in a rhythm. Applies the sandal wood paste horizontally over his forehead and arms. After finishing of all the religious rituals he goes to the kitchen to make some “filter coffee”. Prepares two steel glasses of “filter coffee”. One he gives it to his widowed mother and then enjoys the coffee with the vernacular morning newspaper. After finishing off the political headlines he heads for the color pages where the newspaper supplement is filled up with film gossips. He stares at the buxom,navel showing actresses with lots of flesh. CST wakes up from his imaginative world. 

CST is preparing for the Civil Services Examination. He is already 27 years old and had already flunked twice, now he has to clear the examinations this time, otherwise what will his maternal uncle think about him. His uncle is the Home Secretary of a North Indian State. He is quite popular in the corridors of power. CST doesn’t get distracted by anything else except he often leafs through the pages of different girlie magazines in the middle of his “studies”. This not only “rejuvenates” him but also brings back his “concentration” and focus in studies.

CST gets a very low position in the examination. He was offered a post in the Rural Development department.  His maternal uncle helped him out. CST gets into a “sensational department” of Government of India in a “sensitive post”. CST joins the department. CST starts his “nine” moths training. After “nine “months he will blossom into a full grown “Government Bureaucrat”. His mother started looking for a “well educated Brahmin” bride for him. At last the bride was found. She was from the IPS cadre (Indian Postal Cadre). CST couldn’t control his emotions and hormones. He was desperate to be in touch with his fiancée. CST used to make a queue outside the “ISD - STD, Local Telephone Booth” after 10 PM as the tariff rates were much lower.  After many a “sweet nothings” he used come home with a lesser purse and a sense of accomplishment. What accomplishment? Getting into a good department using the backdoor and having a girl in his life.

The junior staff used to call CST --- megalomaniac, which was more than appropriate. His weird ways of working had completely put off the staff. He was not popular and created divisions. He was in a habit of bullying his staff which later turned to terrorizing the poor fellows. Not allowing any sort of leave to the staff during an emergency which would have been in the form of “death of parents” or wedding of a staff or it could be birth of a child. CST had a “greater vision ahead for the country” which the common people could not “foresee”. As a head of an office he refused to give the staff a “Pay Certificate” to enable them to get a house building loan from the banks. The reason being they would be “exposed” to the outside world and thus could be easily “purchased” by the enemy. CST believed as he and his staff worked in a sensitive department they have to attain maximum restrain in “exposing” themselves unnecessarily to the “general public”. Though Mr. CST himself took a house building loan of Rs. 35 Lakhs from a private bank.  

The day of the great “rejoicing” came in his life when he was called to undergo a three year stint at Berlin. He immediately took the flight leaving behind his “Postal” wife and daughter. The same type of tyrant attitude towards the staff continued in Berlin also. He used to torment his personal secretary Mr. Hada.  His personal secretary was a soft spoken man and wanted to enjoy his foreign posting at Berlin with his family members. It’s a dream of every, well almost every Indian to “live” in a “foren” country and “enjoy” the magnificence  and bring back home the much wanted “US Dollars” and the stories to be told and retold to all, including strangers.

Unable to bear the constant “torture” and humiliation from CST, Mr. Hada committed suicide leaving behind a suicide note blaming CST for taking this ultimate step. A case for “abetment to suicide” was registered against CST. He was in a big trouble. CST rang up his Godfather – maternal uncle. Mrs. Hada came back to India with her eight year old daughter. Mrs. Hada approached her husband’s office for any compensation in the form of Gratuity, Provident Fund, and Exigency Fund but to no avail. She ran pillar to post for her genuine rights but the senior officers, clerks were not honest in their approach. It was difficult for her to maintain her family and dignity. How she would continue her life and educate her daughter?

Someone advised Mrs. Hada to go to the media and tell them to flash the news of how a perverted murderer in the form of CST has destroyed a family. Mrs. Hada acted accordingly. The media got “sensational news” of a “sensitive department” of Government of India. CST felt the time has come for him to go to the prison.

The time has come for Home Secretary maternal uncle to become active. A troupe of senior officers came regularly to negotiate with Mrs. Hada. She was given a deal. A job in the same sensitive department as per her qualifications and also give her a lump sum of 50 lakhs rupees plus all her husband’s dues would be released within three days. For all these she has to write a simple statement which would run like this --- “My husband Mr. Hada was always a mentally unstable man and had suicidal tendencies. Even when there were fights between my husband and me he used to threaten me that he will commit suicide………….”

Mrs. Hada accepted the deal. CST’s wife left him for good. The junior staffs are still suffering.

Note: 

CST is a fictional character created entirely out of imagination by the author. There is no malicious intention of the author to show a particular individual, sect or community in a derogatory manner. This has been done intentionally to justify the main character. Readers are advised to make their own assumptions about the particular department which CST is working for. Some of the events as depicted may be found  a little bit disturbing for the readers but this is life and most of us do not learn lessons from it…………

 

Sitendu De is the author of this story.