A warning to those who do not understand Hindi/Urdu. I will try my level best, but may still fail to prevent utter confusion in your heads. But do read on. Who knows...?
Right. What was I saying? Oh yes. Language is a funny thing. Tells you a lot about the people who use it actually. In subtle ways. In fact, a lot of theorists have brought up the issue of thinking in a particular language.
The illustration I will use in the present instance, is that of the word "Love" in English, and its counterpart in Hindi/Urdu - "Pyaar/Prem/Mohabbat".
Now the English verb is one that is used with both the animate as well as the inanimate. For example, one says "I love Rahul" or "I love Reshma" as easily as one says "I love this song" or "I love that book". No doubt, songs and books are very love inducing things.
But the same word in Hindi or Urdu is not used with inanimate objects. That is, one does not say "Main us gaane se pyaar karti hoon" (I love that song) or "Mujhe us kitaab se mohabbat hai" (I love that book). It makes me feel that the feeling and meaning associated with loving is reserved for the animate category.
Wait. I am going somewhere with this! Inanimate things are created by human beings. That is, they are made by us. While the angrez (by which I mean people using the English language, but, yes, it also means "The English"as a category of people- the traditional users of the English language) find it quite easy to love something they have made, we (in the part of the world where Hindi and Urdu roll off the tongue more easily) are unable to love something that we have made, and keep this most exalted of feelings strictly for the things we cannot take credit for having created.
Now, linking up with this, what do we have? As in the earlier post, which questions the act of worshipping something that you have created, can we also call to question the act of loving something you have created? **
Is there an assumption of a certain narcissism inherent in the English language perhaps? Or in the users of the same? While there is an assumption of humility in Hindi or Urdu, where the emotion of love can be felt only where there is no scope of pride entering the picture?
In parts of the world where worship and love may be equally sacred, in similar ways, pyaar is really the same as prayer isn't it?
* Atmaprashansa= Self Praise
** Did the statement "Aha! But what about children? We create them! And we love them!" come to your mind? Well, I liked Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet in which he clearly states - "Children come through you, not from you". In any case, I believe having children is quite narcissistic anyway. I mean, you create something because you want something to love, and then you love it because you have created it.
