Passion Turns Obsession

When does passion turn to obsession? May be when passion leads to fixations and dysfunction or may be to say passion turns to obsession is to make a distinction of degree. It implies that obsession is a negatively passionate form of passion. Too much of good always turns to be too bad. Thinking more about it you would realise passion and obsession do not really vary by any degree. They are the exact opposites. What makes this distinction confusing is that passion and obsession exhibit a very similar pattern of behaviour. It’s a thin line that separates them.

Still confused? Ok. Now let me put in into simpler lines rather than those philosophical statements.

Passion is a strong but a regular emotion for any activity/person/thing… whereas, obsession is when you are constantly pre-occupied with that activity/person/thing. It is just a feverish bondage by something which basically takes over your life and inhibits you from all the joy and regularity.
Passion is desire whereas obsession is a sin.
Passion – the major part of your life but doesn’t rule over. Instead, it facilitates all other aspects of your life by pumping you with constant adrenaline and happiness.
Obsession – steals everything else away from you, it gives you no fulfilment, no purpose, no pleasure, no satisfaction. It just sucks and sucks you until you are left is just a raving is hunger for whatever you’re obsessed with.
Passion comes from love and obsession just from lust.

Passion is when people admire you for it and obsession is when people abhor you for it.

We are all familiar with cautionary tales of people so consumed with their passion that they lose their social standings, meaningful relationships and ultimately their minds. Their social and professional life falls apart as their passion turns to obsession grips every waking hour, crowding everything else out.

Here are few of those famous tales you must have heard, read, seen or lived somewhere, someday in your walking life:

All work and no play made Joy a dull boy

Joy, a little boy was too passionate about chemistry. It was his favourite subject in school. Out of his craze for chemistry he had got his own chemistry lab in his bedroom. His parents too were very happy supporting him and fulfilling his demands for his passion. They dreamt big for him. He soon started conducting the most amazing experiments exploring all kind of permutations of chemical mixtures. When he was not in his lad he was devouring chemistry textbooks. People said he was passionate about chemistry, but they were wrong – he was obsessed. He was using chemistry as an escape from a very difficult childhood with his parents having no time for him, had no friends to play with, precisely stating, had no social life of his own.
But who was this Joy?

The Sensualist (a novella)– By Ruskin Bond

A novel well ahead of time, The Sensualist is the story of a man enslaved by his libido and spiralling towards self destruction. Gripping, erotic, even brutal, the book explores the demons that its protagonist must grapple with before he is able to come to terms with himself. In this powerful and bold account of the pleasure and perils that attend a young man’s coming of age. Ruskin bond displays his felicity in exploring the dark aspects of the human psyche. In simpler words the protagonist destroying his life by himself in the catch of his passion turned obsession. The obsession of intimacy.
 A compelling read, the sensualist was all exploded with controversies with the heavy words and harsh/rude writing style. Some reviewed the book as ridiculous while some said it’s the bitter fact of society. The sensualist appeared in serialised form in the debonair – A Mumbai magazine and consequently author was charged with obscenity. After a long trial and a much awaited acquittal, the popular author was freed from this unwanted mess.

Have you also recently met any such sensualist unlike Mr. Ruskin?

A God like Us

Brahma, the creator god in hindu mythology. But, Hinduism makes no provisions for any major rituals or festivals or traditions or aspects with brahma as the focal point. So why is it so? What makes brahma, the creator, unworthy of worship? The problem here lies more with the question than the answer.
The world being referred to in Hinduism when referring to brahma is not the objective world but the subjective world of thoughts and feelings. Braham  creates these worlds through desire and attachment. Creation began because brahma wanted to know who he was. Self-realisation was the goal for which the world was the medium. But when the world was created, brahma was so enchanted by this creation that he got attached to it and tried to control it. In his attachment and desire to control it, he lost all sense of himself. And by doing so became unworthy of worship.

This thought is expressed through an allegorical story narrated in most puranas. In the begning, brahma was all alone. He could not see whence he came from. Who was he, he wondered. Finding no answer he decided to create the ‘other’ so that he would know what he was not. This ‘other’ took the form of a women. She was shatarupa, one of many forms. And she kept changing forms. Brahma was so enchanted by her that he sprouted four heads to look upon her at all times. He chased her but she always ran away. If she turned into any animal he turned into the male form of it. He tried to catch her but he missed him always. He was so enchanted by her that he sprouted four heads to look upon her all the time. He was determined to control her, conquer her. In this obsession, he sprouted a fifth head. Watching brahma chase his own creation gods shouted with disgust. Worried gods called lord shiva for help. Shiva raised his sword and cut the fifth head of brahma. Thus, shiva is today known as the destroyer.

Thus, the passion (creation) is seen as that which is produced through desire and attachment. And obsession (destruction) is that which follows desire-less-ness and detachment.

Brahma yearns to control creation; he is enchanted by it. Shiva has no yearning, detached of all materialistic pleasures. Whereas, Vishnu engages with detachment. Shiva and Vishnu represent how one should live his life. Brahma was a god still announced unworthy of being worshiped because of his obsession.

Brahma running behind his creations and man running behind his produces, so similar? Isn’t it?
If even God was not spared by society how would man?

 I hope finally now you have a clear distinguish ready in your mind of passion v/s obsession. The thin line between the two is now so clearly visible. So, what’s your status today? Passionate or obsessed? Time to get your scales designed to measure your level of Passion and mark the red line of it turning to obsession.