विकल्प - (vikalpa)

Background

Vikalpa is a concept that has been lost in translation and used in my culture for thousands of years.

It originates from the ancient language Sanskrit.

Sanskrit or Samskritam is considered by many to be the mother of all existing Indo-European languages. But 6000 years ago it wasn’t spoken as much as it was written or read. It is a language created by quite literally refining other prexisting languages at the time (one of them being the ancient Tamil); specifically with the focus of expressing the universe the way in which one experiences it.

Early indians used it to write textbooks or manuals on how to create temples and other structures used in vedic rituals. They used it to describe the cosmos and the relationships between organisms and the earth around them. Sanskrit was used to compile all the mathematics, science, and philosophy as well as the literature and history.

It is a framework that was created to be just as poetic as it is logical. English, although being a great grandchild of Sanskrit, wasn’t designed with this purpose rendering some words “untranslatable” because of it.

The definition of an “untranslatable” word is usually conveyed by listing many different but similar concepts. There are words for things in Sanskrit that don’t exist in English simply because the concept is absent in Western Philosophy. Vikalpa is one such concept.

Focus

When somebody seriously sits down with themselves, and tries to silence the mind. Certain discomforts emerge. The task of dealing with these very discomforts is what Yoga sets out to do.

The great sage Patanjali once said “ योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः (yoga citta vritti nirodha)”. In english: “Yoga is the restraint of fluctuation of the mind”.

Ancient indians created methods for excercising mental fortitude and focusing the mind. We have a systematic understanding of the various experiences one may go through as they begin their journey meditating. This is the context from which the concept of विकल्प (vikalpa) was born. When one begins meditating the mind begins to wander. The places the mind goes as you begin to attempt quieting it can be just as vicious as ecstatic. Maybe you begin to conjur up memories of events that either happened to you or you were a part of and play them out differently. Maybe you just get lost thinking about how the future will be. The pain and trauma inside of us dictates the noise level in our heads; the first step in meditation is being able to control that volume.

विकल्प (vikalpa) is the source of your aversion when you sit down with yourself. It’s the figment of imagination within you that keeps you from becoming still. It’s an idea that exists to exist in your head and nowhere else.

In Sanātana Dharma we see the universe as being very much alive and full of awareness. Everything from celestial objects to oceans, forests and mountains are personafied and revered. With the same devotion the Earth itself is worshiped in the form of the devi पृथिवी (Prithvi Mata), or mother earth.

I’d like to think that my work is a reflection of her Vikalpa, as she sits down and lets her mind wander on all the great stories from my culture that unite the vast Indian diaspora.

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