The Burning Cigarette-a mentor to Mokshya , Karma and Dharma

Statutory Warning:  Smoking cigarette is injurious to health.

Disclaimer:  Written below is purely wordplay of my conviction and imagination. Reader has full rights to find my arguments cogent or trivial.

Prelude:  Unexpressed thoughts and feelings reverberate in my mind choking me sometimes ,at times making me blank  and the only thing my baffled mind can imagine is the metaphorical resemblance of my situation with a burning cigarette-the smoke goes higher and higher at the cost of its originator ,which burns itself completely;  the better I work to achieve my incomplete dreams the more I burn deep inside with my pent-up  emotions scorching my soul and thus forcing me to dream and long for heights of achievement- heights commensurate  with the depth and intensity of my emotions.

Since long, whenever I see anybody smoking, inchoate ideas splash into my mind but I fail to shape them.  It is only after I became a victim to this habit, it endowed me with a better art of expression.

It was a rainy day and it had stopped raining after almost 2 hours of continuous shower, although it was still drizzling-making the air damp- with calm and chilled breeze blowing, and amidst all these distractions and disturbances the cigarette which I lighted up-which in turn ignited my feelings- was persevering to keep itself burning, the very reason of its creation, exemplifying the substance of Karma-

Be intent on actions,

Not on the fruits of action;

Avoid attraction to the fruits

And attachment to inaction.

~Bhagavad Gita

It was a Sunday morning. I woke up, refreshed myself, took my chair along with some commodities and marched to my comforting and peaceful balcony. With lighted up ‘Classic Mild’ in left hand and ‘The Difficulty of being good’, book which I was going through, in the right hand I placed myself on the chair.

I took a long, deep puff inhaling it to the core, made my lungs to feel it, waited for some time and exhaled it till the very last molecule of smoke came out-with my eyes focused on the burning end of Classic Mild. Sparked by a deep thought,  I realized that it is the heat of the front end which induces its thermal energy to the adjacent layer, whose molecules work collaboratively ,thus  carrying the spirit- of burning- to the rear end throughout the length of the cigarette.

Likewise, what we feed to our mind is reflected by our deeds and it is the after-effect of one action which provides an impetus to another of same nature, origin or kind, and impinges on our further activities, endeavor throughout our lifetime.

I inhaled it for the last time as the flame touched the filter zone and I was just on the verge of throwing it but I could clearly  see  the filter part  flaming at a rate slower than with which it was burning initially. I started blowing air –giving a driving force- to it and it took the pace as before.

Likewise, there comes , invariably, a situation in each individual’s life where in he/she finds himself/herself completely dispirited with their mind losing grip over wisdom, prudence and ability to act accordingly; and one needs a driving force, be it mental, spiritual or external, to come out of the ordeal. And it is the strength of one’s spirit which decides whether he/she is going to come out of the torment or be absorbed by it to be termed as a man of mettle, achiever, winner or an ordinary individual respectively.

Last but not the least, as a burning cigarette leaves behind its ashes and smoke, so do each and every act, Karma, of we mortals leaves an imprint of our character and personality on the society. And as the fate of a cigarette is predetermined-it has to burn and vanish in the hands of its recipient- similarly we humans are born only to die someday. 

Truly, the only thing certain, the Mahabharata tells us, is that Kala (time or death) is ‘always cooking us’.

 In the cauldron fashioned from delusion, with the sun as fire and day and night as kindling wood, the months and seasons as the ladle for stirring, Time ( or Death) cooks all beings: this is the simple truth.              

~ Mahabharatha

P.S.   I doubt whether I have done justice in rendering my thoughts and imagination into words. I cannot claim to have sufficient understanding of the concepts of Mokshya, Karma and Dharma and after giving much thinking to it and gathering a lot of valor I dared to relate it with the shallow concept of smoking  but I tried my best to compare this concept  with general philosophes of life.

Your criticism is highly coveted to boost up the novice writing instinct in me.