The Portrait of a Depraved Soul.
Altruism vs Hedonism
I have based this article on an extremely fascinating, yet instructional tale- ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, written by Oscar Wilde in mid 1890s. This was a complex, philosophical novel that expertly painted the portrait of a confused, ignorant soul that went astray and got trapped in the illusory web of multifarious sensuous temptations, leading an enormously depraved life.
THE CORRUPTION
He was a young, simple, supremely gorgeous but also an impressionable man who was corrupted by a ‘friend’, Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry presented his hedonistic views of the world to Dorian and gradually convinced him that his external beauty was his most valuable possession that should be preserved at all costs. He taught him to use it as a tool to experience an enormously decadent life full of extreme sensuality, debauchery, and depravity. He encouraged him to indulge in all kinds of sensual delights, and worldly pleasures, and explore his wicked tendencies.
HEDONISM
This was the hedonistic mentality of Lord Henry that was successfully passed on to Dorian. Empty shells with no internal substance often absorb outer, worldly opinions and such shallow viewpoints gladly and without hesitation. Thus, one is encouraged to work on developing an internal, spiritual core strength that can withstand and confidently oppose the degraded ideas presented by this world.
THE PORTRAIT
Dorian Gray’s extraordinary, beguiling beauty made him a muse for many celebrated artists who obsessed over his mesmerizing beauty and wished to capture it on their canvas. One such artist was Basil Hallward who masterfully painted a stunning portrait of Dorian. This astonishing, jaw-dropping portrait perfectly captured his celestial beauty, virility, charm, vigor, and innocence.
It was a replica of Dorian; so enchanting that Dorian and Sir Henry were enthralled by its captivating beauty. They wished that if only ‘Dorian could stay as young as this forever while the portrait will age and scar with time’.
So, he wished that the portrait may age while he stays forever youthful and handsome, exactly the same as now. HIS WISH DID COME TRUE.
UNINTELLIGENT DESIRES- Be Careful of what you wish for.
Do we have the correct vision, intelligence, and knowledge of self to see our future and decide what is best for us?
If not, then your short-term, superficial understanding can be your ruin. This was the beginning of the end of Dorian’s goodness, his virtues, and his Consciousness. Everything that was actually good and true about him was brutally discarded while preserving only the external bodily beauty.
FALSE EGO- Bodily Identification
This strong bodily attachment and lack of realization of the real- self creates a strong bodily identification. Therefore, such people are extremely fearful of losing bodily possessions- beauty, knowledge, talents, fame, strength, etc.
While the ancient wisdom literatures teach that ‘A Sober, self-realized person who understands his true spiritual nature is not fearful of such bodily losses or changes and stays steady amidst disease, old age, loss, and pain that are inevitable dangers of acquiring a body.’
THE ASSOCIATION- Who are your friends?
Dorian had quickly absorbed the narcissistic, self-serving viewpoints of Sir Henry who appeared to be a gentleman outwardly but catered to this manipulative, decadent, and indulgent behavior. Young Dorian took association of this hedonistic ‘gentleman’ and learned this exploitative mentality from him. He inflicted this mindset on the young, impressionable, and innocent Dorian Gray.
The ignorant association of deviants and degenerates posing as so-called sophisticated, cultured gentlemen acts as a strong gravitational force on the tender minds of the untrained, naïve people lacking substance within their consciousness. Therefore, they fall into the clutches of their lower nature.
This is also the consequence of not inculcating adequate scriptural, cultural, moral, and ethical values in one’s children. The world then sweeps in to inflict all kinds of uncouth, erroneous, faulty viewpoints on our children. Before the world can teach them wrong things, we must teach them right things. Hence, he managed to fall to the nadir of this tendency – referred to as the hedonistic point of view.
IGNORANT SOULS- An easy target for Maya
He was also very handsome, the concept that we are this body was very easy for him to absorb. He was a target of people’s admiration and adoration; he was a muse to many artists. This further inflated his false ego and solidified the viewpoint of the bodily conception of self. It is often seen that such people gifted with beautiful bodies, numerous talents, opulent birth, many riches, fame, etc. are generally given to this type of decadent predilections and materialistic predisposition. They tend to be an easier target for vices to latch onto them.
Hence, his impure association, lack of any cultivated values, and admiration offered by this world all went against him.
A LIFE OF DEPRAVITY
Now that Dorian was youthful forever, he started experimenting with the narcissistic approach to life that he had newly learned. He engaged in all kinds of vile, ruthless conduct, impure habits, and uncontrolled sensual indulgence. He proceeded to live a very degraded, debauched, meaningless life, of no value except to his senses and mind. He became addicted to this type of wild, uncivilized behavior and went on to commit several criminal acts without any regard for harm or pain caused to others.
PORTRAIT- THE MIRROR OF HIS CONSCIOUSNESS
He realized that even though he did not age a day, the portrait was not only aging but getting severely disfigured day after day, month after month, and year after year. It had become deformed beyond any resemblance to the original person, having accumulated numerous wrinkles, scars, and welts. This portrait had become a mirror of his consciousness which was now scarred with deep impressions of heinous crimes, and abominable behavior; representing the harm, and pain caused to the innocent souls.
In this way, his soul was getting continuously injured on a daily basis, multiple times with each sordid act. His uncontrolled senses and mind were supposed to reflect badly on his body, rather they were reflecting badly on the portrait due to the deal he made. In this way, the portrait meta-morphed into an unidentifiable, unrecognizable hideous creature who did not resemble the picture of Dorian at all. It was changed beyond recognition and Dorian seeing it as proof of his crimes, decided to stow it away. He hid it in the basement behind curtains to avoid facing the monstrosity depicting his degraded, sinful life.
PRACTICE OF VIRTUES- A CONSCIOUS DECISION
The general tendency of humans is to gravitate towards an enjoyer and exploitative mentality. They tend to be self-centered and indulge with their senses and mind at the expense of others. Therefore, one has to consciously choose virtues over vices- cultivate this habit while voluntarily opting to disregard one’s base nature.
This is a skill that needs a great deal of practice, patience to cultivate, daily reminders, and association of men who are truly gentle and ladies of superior character. This skill needs to be honed with guidance from superior wisdom and self-realized souls. However, Dorian practiced vices while disregarding the virtues of compassion, tolerance, love, patience, and forgiveness which are the true beauty and embellishments of a gentleman.
A LIFE MEANT FOR SERVICE / ALTRUISM
Altruism vs Hedonism
Ancient Vedic laws when detailing the purpose of human life enjoin that humanity is meant for service. A life of sacrifice and selfless service is what gives the most satisfaction and bliss to the soul. Hence it is considered the dharma of mankind. Therefore, we as spiritual beings are meant to serve others in general and the supreme person in specific.
Instead, Sir Henry essentially taught Dorian adharma- where everyone else is meant to serve him and is dispensable in his quest for a corrupted life. This is the general tendency of people. However, when taken to extreme aggression, it becomes a hedonistic mentality that encourages a very decadent, debauch behavior. It encourages extreme engagement of the senses even at the expense of causing harm to others.
FREE WILL (Choose Wisely)
We have our free will and have been given the freedom to exercise it such that we can either live a life of sacrifice or a self-centered, degenerated life like Dorian embarked upon. Whatever resources, talents, skills, and qualities one is provided are meant to be engaged in service. However, Dorian chose to use his beauty, wealth, fame, etc. to exploit others. The Vedanta philosophy also bids that the soul has the propensity to love and serve, not exploit and injure. Therefore, altruism is the natural propensity of the soul, not hedonism which is an acquired feature of the body.
CHOOSE YOUR HEROES WISELY (Who is your muse?)
Basil Hallward, the artist who painted the ravishing portrait initially, visited Dorian to examine his work again. However, what he saw instead was a hideous, repugnant monster in place of his painting. This revolting sight shocked him to the core, as the portrait was so unsightly that he could only recognize his signature as the only remnant from the original picture. But when he understood the reality of the situation, he was even more stunned by the atrocious activities of his former ‘muse’ and begged him to pray for salvation.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves-
Who are our heroes?
Who do we choose to follow and admire?
THE UNCONTROLLED PASSION (UNDOING OF THE SELF)
Our consciousness is a very gentle and tender element. It is easily affected by the activities of gross and subtle bodies. If we decide to live an impure life of unrestricted sense enjoyment, exploitation, self-centeredness, personal aggrandizement, causing harm to others, crimes, and engaging in vices- the consciousness bears the brunt and gets scarred. These scars are carried by the soul from one life to another and therefore the soul requires another body in the next life according to the activities performed in the current life.
Excessive Indulgence —> Detachment or Destruction?
Dorian was headed towards a very dangerous outcome but decided to disregard the consequences like an ostrich burying its head under the sand. When one day, he confronted the portrait which was completely distorted and disfigured – he was suddenly jolted and could not bear the sight of what was essentially his mutilated consciousness. He repented, lamented, and decided to make a change.
IT WAS TOO LATE
Actually, it is Never too late for those who persist and do not give up! But Dorian Gave Up…
He had no practice of good conduct, service, or sacrifice and became very quickly frustrated. He was used to immediate results, constant gratification, and quick satisfaction. Therefore, the longer we wait to make a transformation, the longer it takes and the harder it is to subdue the ego, senses, and mind.
Easily frustrated by his half-hearted stab at goodness, he instead decided to stab and destroy the portrait. This portrait had become a mirror of his real self, a constant reminder of his extremely sinful life. The book describes that stabbing the portrait restored its original beauty whereas Dorian immediately became decrepit, old, scarred, with a deformed body, and died.
WHAT WOULD BE THE PORTRAIT OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS LIKE?
We are not that far off from Dorian. We have also accumulated many sinful reactions – albeit, over many lifetimes while Dorian was accumulating them over one short lifetime.
The goal of life is to purify and cleanse our consciousness that has become contaminated over lifetimes with sinful activities, and indulgence in the material world. Such absorption in the world and enjoyment of this world leads to the lordship mentality, enjoyer propensity, and contamination of consciousness. Dorian contaminated and injured his consciousness very brutally in this manner. He became more and more impure every day, going further and further away from the goal of human life.
This book sought to explore the lower nature of mankind which becomes prominent when exercising one’s sensuality in an unrestricted manner, in the mode of darkness. It depicts how one may misuse their external beauty and influence to perform sinful activities, which will gradually damage one’s inner self irreversibly.
The soul has to make its way out of this darkness. This can be achieved with pure association, divine literature, and cautiously feeding the senses and mind while also engaging the body in service. I hope we can absorb these necessary lessons from the ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’ and not commit the same mistakes of wasting a valuable, human form of life meant for service and sacrifice.
The aim of life should be to purify our soul before it contamination by sinful activities’we should make friends wisely…otherwise like Dorian we can damage our inner self nd misuse our soul under the influence of friends and so called well wishers.Dorian contaminated nd injured his body brutally by his sickly thoughts….Also we should not wait longer for any transformation….i know its very hard to take decision of transformation but timely decision is always fruitful..A life of sacrifice nd selfless service always gives satisfaction and bliss to the soul….we should teach r children to enjoy life but make good friends as not to fall in the clutches of Maya….very educative sub stack. OM SAT SAT