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July 11, 2005

Philosophy reflected by The Mirror of Erised.

Harry sits forlornly, staring at the reflection of his parents and himself, in the Mirror of Erised and Dumbledore's voice of wisdom explains, "Ah, I see you have found the Mirror of Erised...in this mirror, you will see your deepest desires, the one thing that will make you the happiest...the man who looks at this mirror and sees himself as he is, is perhaps the happiest man there is..."

Or something to that effect. And for a few moments, I disengaged myself from the bewitching world of Harry Potter and wondered what I would see, were I to be standing in front of the Mirror of Erised.

A hundred fleeting images, a blur of quickly concocted happily-ever-afters and deeply pondered over desires and yearning surge forth and I strain to identify a clear image. I see none, the sad fact being that I do not know what will make me as happy as I can ever hope to be.

My mom tells me sometimes we make the mistake of praying for some things for us - a particular life, a particular soul mate, a number of very particular somethings, and sometimes the strength of our prayers or perhaps some unseen consciousness, some unseen power grants us those wishes and then we wonder if we could have asked for something different, something better? She tells me He knows what is best for us and perhaps when we pray, we just let him decide what is best for us...the fickle mind that I have, I find it hard to follow this little bit of advice.

Still curious though, will the Mirror of Erised show me what will make me happiest when I myself am unaware of what will make me so? Perhaps, we don't need mirrors to teach us about happiness, perhaps we look deeper within ourselves and the answers will dawn on us someday...

7 comments:

kamal said...

Ah! A deeply philosophical question! Actually, I was thinking the same thing, when I was seeing the movie (mirror) last night, could not get a definitive answer though :( I guess at each instant of time we want different things to make us happy, or the deepest desires of our hearts are different as times change, like for Harry it was to see his parents, for me @ one point it was to come to US, then to get a job, now something else, I think most of us think, What Next? Success in your previous endeavor makes the What Next question even bigger

Not sure, if this is in the spirit of your post :)

baby K

P B said...

What makes us unhappy in the first place. If happiness is in "One thing", well, every one cqan go and get that and be happy for ever. So happiness is our own possession.
Analogy says, there was a woman who thought her necklace is lost, however she was wearing on her own neck. She was looking for necklace all over the world. Suddenly one person told her necklace is with her only, she need not look outside.

As I am typing this Raja in his "urukum voice" is saying "pugave vendam pulangalil neer". Probably that is what happiness is?

expertdabbler said...

A book called "FLOW" gave an interesting interpretation to happiness.

"will the Mirror of Erised show me what will make me happiest when I myself am unaware of what will make me so?"

of course it wont:)
only you yourself can make you and keep u happy.

sema topic. what you call "Evergreen, "saaga varam petra" topic :-)

Krish said...

Sandosham kaanaadha naalundaa
Sangeetham paadaadha aalundaa
Oru thunbam vandaal
Adhai inbam endru
Enni vaazhnduvittaal

Sandosham kaanaadha naalundaaaaa

Paasangal podhum
Paarvaigal podhum
Paalaiyil neerum surandhu varum
Punnagai podhum poo mozhi podhum
Porgalum kooda mudindhu vidum

Paadhaiyum ange pirandhu vidum
Paaraiyum pazhamaai kanindhu vidum
Vaazhkkaiyin aazham vilangi vidum

Sandosham kaanaadha naalundaa

:-)

Anonymous said...

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be .- AL

-Vasu

Shiva said...

even if something entertaining like the mirror or erised did exist, it has to operate having one more dimension - TIME. Factors that enable us to attain 'Ultimate Happiness' is directly dependent and driven by time. It is not something that is goin to be a constant.

i believe there is nothing wrong in praying for what we think will give us happiness. Alternately, if the Superpower decides that something else is better, He can always decide what to give. But given our wavering minds Iam not sure if He can manage that..

RS said...

To Baby k: Indeed...in search of the elusive...sigh.

To Muthu: probably :)

To P~K: :)

To Thennavin: refreshing and apt :)

To Vasu: padichen un blogla ida :)

To shiva: interesting dimension, J.KRowling needs to take a hint from you :)

To ramji: waiting for july 16th!

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