Are You One or Many?

Today I finished reading “Nocturnal Hindu” by the Italian Writer Antonio Tabucchi. Without trying to give too many spoilers, it tells the story of a man on a search for his mysterious friend, Xavier, in India.

This story is very similar to PAGOO’s journey in search of their uttermost self while experimenting with the outer world. What is the limit, however, between who we really are and what we have been taught to be and conditioned to do?

In the book, there’s this passage where the searcher and narrator meet a fortune-teller and ask him “Who Am I?”. The seer then tells him that he can’t tell it because he is someone else. He is just “Maya”.

In ancient Hindu texts and Vedic wisdom, Maya is the goddess of Illusion. Its extended veil is the warning to the illusory nature of what we call reality. At the root of the word Maya is the idea of measure and creation: reality is objectified in illusion. 

In this material world, the main obstacle is to detach our self from the seductions of the sensorial pleasure and egotistical illusion of power and control to conquer true enlightenment and find our Atma: our souls. 

Maya connotes that which “is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal, in opposition to Absolute”. Having this clarity, PAGOO usually says: I’m one and many others at the same time. 

We know we are still stuck in Maya, breaking each illusion, seeking the Absolute, the true character of spiritual reality. Writing and Spoken Words Performing are the tools chosen to channel and make sense of this search. 

We are truly glad to have found a book that also deals with the same theme, seeking oneself amidst the distractions of the world: fame, overindulgence in sensory pleasures, power dynamics, societal expectations and norms. 

I don’t know about you, but we need to break all damn illusions. We need to break free to be able to be. We need to write our story and one day, who knows, be read by you so you can find your Atma too, just like PAGOO.