TO CHASE A CROOKED SHADOW
Running along with the work is refined way of doing things while
running against or running ahead of work with the imaginations spoils the
broth That is what is known as TO CHASE A CROOKED SHADOW. Arjuna must
fulfil the battle END. Let us see how the Greeks looked at.
The phrase "We are all shadows on the wall of time" is a metaphor
expressing the impermanence and fleeting nature of human life, similar to
the biblical concept of life being short and insubstantial. While there is
no single definitive "origin," it broadly draws from themes found in
ancient philosophy and religious texts, such as Plato's Allegory of the
Cave, which describes how people perceive only shadows as reality, and
biblical verses like Psalm 144:4 where David describes humans as "like a
breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow".
Religious Roots:
The concept that life is short and temporary is ancient.
Psalm 144:4 (Bible): King David writes, "They (human beings) are like a
breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow," which conveys the brevity
of life in the face of eternity.
James 4:14 (New Testament): James, Jesus's half-brother, echoes this
sentiment by comparing life to "a mist that appears for a little while and
then vanishes".
Philosophical Resonance:
The metaphor connects to broader philosophical ideas about perception and
reality.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave: This famous allegory describes prisoners
chained in a cave who believe the shadows on the wall are reality. For
Plato, a philosopher leaving the cave represents gaining true knowledge,
realizing the shadows are only imperfect representations of a higher
reality. The phrase "shadows on the wall" can therefore also imply that our
earthly existence is a limited perception of a deeper truth.
Modern Interpretations:
The metaphor continues to be used in contemporary art and literature to
comment on the elusive nature of time and the transient nature of existence.
2 Plato's allegory of the cave is an allegory presented by the Greek
philosopher Plato in his work Republic (514a–520a, Book VII) to compare
"the effect of education (παιδεία) and the lack of it on our nature
(φύσις)." It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and
Plato's mentor Socrates and is narrated by the latter. The allegory is
presented after the analogy of the Sun (508b–509c) and the analogy of the
divided line (509d–511e).
In the allegory, Plato describes people who have spent their entire lives
chained by their necks and ankles in front of an inner wall with a view of
the empty outer wall of the cave. They observe the shadows projected onto
the outer wall by objects carried behind the inner wall by people who are
invisible to the chained “prisoners” and who walk along the inner wall with
a fire behind them, creating the shadows on the inner wall in front of the
prisoners. The "sign bearers" pronounce the names of the objects, the
sounds of which are reflected near the shadows and are understood by the
prisoners as if they were coming from the shadows themselves.
Only the shadows and sounds are the prisoners' reality, which are not
accurate representations of the real world. The shadows represent distorted
and blurred copies of reality we can perceive through our senses, while the
objects under the Sun represent the true forms of objects that we can only
perceive through reason. Three higher levels exist: natural science;
deductive mathematics, geometry, and logic; and the theory of forms.
Socrates explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner freed from the
cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not the
direct source of the images seen. A philosopher aims to understand and
perceive higher levels of reality. However, the other inmates of the cave
do not even desire to leave their prison, for they know no better life
Socrates remarks that this allegory can be paired with previous writings,
namely the analogy of the Sun and the analogy of the divided line.
3 Scholars debate the possible interpretations of the allegory of
the cave, either looking at it from an epistemological standpoint—one based
on the study of how Plato believes we come to know things—or through a
political (politeia) lens.[8] Much of the scholarship on the allegory falls
between these two perspectives, with some completely independent of either.
The epistemological view and the political view, prominently represented by
Richard Lewis Nettleship and A. S. Ferguson, respectively, tend to be
discussed most frequently
Nettleship interprets the allegory of the cave as representative of our
innate intellectual incapacity, in order to contrast our lesser
understanding with that of the philosopher, as well as an allegory about
people who are unable or unwilling to seek truth and wisdom Ferguson, on
the other hand, bases his interpretation of the allegory on the claim that
the cave is an allegory of human nature and that it symbolizes the
opposition between the philosopher and the corruption of the prevailing
political condition.
Cleavages have emerged within these respective camps of thought, however.
Much of the modern scholarly debate surrounding the allegory has emerged from
Martin Heidegger's exploration of the allegory, and philosophy as a whole,
through the lens of human freedom in his book The Essence of Human Freedom:
An Introduction to Philosophy and The Essence of Truth: On Plato's Cave
Allegory and Theaetetus. In response, Hannah Arendt, an advocate of the
political interpretation of the allegory, suggests that through the
allegory, Plato "wanted to apply his own theory of ideas to politics".
Conversely, Heidegger argues that the essence of truth is a way of being
and not an object. Arendt criticized Heidegger's interpretation of the
allegory, writing that "Heidegger ... is off base in using the cave simile
to interpret and 'criticize' Plato's theory of ideas"
Various scholars also debate the possibility of a connection between the
work in the allegory and the cave and the work done by Plato considering
the analogy of the divided line and the analogy of the Sun. The divided
line is a theory presented to us in Plato's work the Republic. This is
displayed through a dialogue given between Socrates and Glaucon in which
they explore the possibility of a visible and intelligible world, with the
visible world consisting of items such as shadows and reflections
(displayed as AB) then elevating to the physical item itself (displayed as
BC) while the intelligible world consists of mathematical reasoning
(displayed by CD) and philosophical understanding (displayed by DE).
Many see this as an explanation for the way in which the prisoner in the
allegory of the cave goes through the journey, first in the visible world
with shadows such as those on the wall, then the realization of the
physical with the understanding of concepts such as the tree being separate
from its shadow. It enters the intelligible world as the prisoner looks at
the sun.
The divided line – (AC) is generally taken as representing the visible
world and (CE) as representing the intelligible worldThe Analogy of the Sun
refers to the moment in book six in which Socrates, after being urged by
Glaucon to define goodness, proposes instead an analogy through a "child of
goodness". Socrates reveals this "child of goodness" to be the Sun,
proposing that just as the Sun illuminates, bestowing the ability to see
and be seen by the eye: 169 with its light, so the idea of goodness
illumines the intelligible with truth, leading some scholars to believe
this forms a connection of the Sun and the intelligible world within the
realm of the allegory of the cave.
4 What do we have? We do not chase. We do simply.
yah sarvatranabhisnehas tat tat prapya shubhashubham
nabhinandati na dveshti tasya prajna pratishthita
BG 2.57: One who remains unattached under all conditions, and is neither
delighted by good fortune nor dejected by tribulation, he is a sage with
perfect knowledge.
nasti buddhir-ayuktasya na chayuktasya bhavana
na chabhavayatah shantir ashantasya kutah sukham
BG 2.66: But an undisciplined person, who has not controlled the mind and
senses, can neither have a resolute intellect nor steady contemplation on
God. For one who never unites the mind with God there is no peace; and how
can one who lacks peace be happy?
கற்றதனால் ஆய பயனென்கொல் வாலறிவன்
நற்றாள் தொழாஅர் எனின். (௨ - 2)
Katradhanaal Aaya Payanenkol Vaalarivan
Natraal Thozhaaar Enin
Of what avail is learning if one worships not The holy feet of Pure
Intelligence?
apuryamanam achala-pratishtham
samudram apah pravishanti yadvat
tadvat kama yam pravishanti sarve
sa shantim apnoti na kama-kami
BG 2.70: Just as the ocean remains undisturbed by the incessant flow of
waters from rivers merging into it, likewise the sage who is unmoved
despite the flow of desirable objects all around him attains peace, and not
the person who strives to satisfy desires.
In the Bhagavad Gita, a Sthitaprajna is described as a person of steady
intelligence who has achieved a state of inner stability and balance
Thus, where one runs along fulfills easily the assigned work; the rest
disappear as failures. K Rajaram IRS 24825
On Sun, 24 Aug 2025 at 04:35, Jambunathan Iyer <[email protected]>
wrote:
> For High achievers, the pursuit of grand milestones becomes a driving
> force. But when achievement is fueled by external validation rather than
> internal passion and motivation, the end result often feels lacking.
>
>
> *N Jambunathan , Chennai " What you get by achieving your goals is not as
> important as what you become by achieving your goals. If you want to live a
> happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things "*
>
>
>
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