Sisyphus and the writer
 Albert Camus tried to show the absurdity of human existence in 'The
Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays' (1942). "The Gods had condemned
Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence
the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some
reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and
hopeless labour". (Justin O'brien translation).
In the Cullavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka, Anuruddha the Sakyan faced
the same never ending Sisyphean task, as explained to him by his brother
Mahanama, about the household responsibilities of ploughing, sowing,
harvesting and the agricultural cycle year after year. But Anuruddha had
an opportunity to lay down his burden forever, by becoming a disciple of
the Buddha. Sisyphus was not aware of such an opportunity to escape his
torment.
In the Sallatha Sutta of the Samyutta Nikaya, Buddha has explained
about the pain caused by an arrow, how the un-instructed would feel the
pain of a second arrow, because he feels a mental pain too, which was
like another arrow had entered his body. The instructed person would
feel only the physical pain. Perhaps Sisyphus too felt only the physical
pain every time he carried his rock up the hill. That is the only way he
could have been happy as he went down the hill again to pick up the
rock. Camus ended his essay, "The struggle itself towards the heights is
enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy".
We also find similarities of the Sisyphean myth in the descriptions
and temple paintings of the so-called 'Buddhist hell' or 'narakadiya'.
Sisyphean myth was used by Orlando Patterson, in his 1964 novel
'Children of Sisyphus', where he deals with the pathetic life of
Jamaican slum-dwellers, and through the story of Dinah, a prostitute who
attempts to escape from her degrading circumstances. But when the
American rock band, Chicago, sang "I'm gonna take the stone
of/sisyphus/I'm gonna roll it back to you./Building a wall of stone.",
probably they had no idea they too were carrying the rock of Sisyphus.
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Portrayal
of Sisyphus |
2000 years ago Lucretius identified the Sisyphean myth with
politicians struggling to come to power, but are defeated at every
attempt, and this interpretation holds even today.
The writer is also carrying a rock uphill, as he struggles to
transfer the thoughts in his mind into a form readable by other human
beings. Once the book is handed over to the publisher, he finds that the
top of the mountain is too narrow to place his rock on. The rock tumbles
down and he has to begin all over again. But in the same way that Camus
saw Sisyphus, the writer too is a happy man, after he has poured out his
story and walks downhill.
The artist struggles with his painting, trying to transfer the image
he has in his mind on to the canvass, and once completed, he will either
store it away or sell it off, and then is compelled to relieve his mind
of the next image that is growing inside him.
We see Sisyphus in our teachers, who struggle with a batch of
children, for one whole year, and when they have grasped whatever
knowledge had been imparted to them, they leave. The following year
there is a new batch of students and the teacher has to begin all over
again.
There are some people who struggle up the hill just once, let the
rock roll down again, but never bother to go down and carry it up. They
are happy to give up, lie down and enjoy the scenery from the top of the
mountain. There are others, who run down after the rock, but the second
time they are unable to haul it up to the summit. Others need to fortify
themselves with stimulants or intoxicants before they begin their task.
There is no mention in the Greek mythology if Sisyphus had
competition. Today we face competition, in most tasks, however futile
they may be. This competition makes some of us feel the rock to be
heavier, the pain and frustration to increase, along with greed and
envy.
Through this unending Samsara, we are like Sisyphus, over and over.
From our birth we continue the struggle to live, to keep death away from
us, to live in good health, gather wealth, learn, and in the end we die,
to be born again, to follow the same path, with the knowledge that we
will die again. Even though German archaeologist Welcker believed the
myth symbolized the vain struggle of man in the pursuit of knowledge,
seeking knowledge is an unending task, with never a respite. Perhaps
what he meant was that in the end all knowledge we gain throughout our
lives is all in vain.
Sisyphus had an advantage that the rock he carried was not too heavy
for him. He could somehow carry it up to the top of the hill. In our
daily lives, sometimes the burden we have to carry becomes too heavy to
lift, or too large to gather within our open arms, and at such times, we
either get crushed under the rock as we try to lift it, or strain our
body too hard, ending up as a physical wreck. There had also been
instances where the rock could stay atop the summit for ever, as we see
with the great creations like our Samadhi and Avukana statues and the
Sigiriya frescoes.
When we come to think of it, all our efforts are futile, all we do
are Sisyphean tasks, because in the end we die, leaving all we have
achieved behind us.
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