“Those who were seen dancing were

thought to be insane by those who

could not hear the music.”
ESSAY BY KIRTI PRAJAPATI

The given quote is commonly attributed to the existentialist Friedrich Nietzsche, the German
philosopher. On the surface, this quote seems to be about a silent disco, but we can truly interpret
this only when we become the understudies of this silent music itself, become the dancers that
the onlookers think of as insane, and embody the spirit of ‘live and let live’.

Indian philosophies have, through the times, emphasized on the multiplicity of truths. One such
example is the theory of Anekantvada, which lies at the core of the metaphysical philosophy of
Jainism. A famous fable to illustrate this is the story of the 5 blind men and an elephant wherein
the men each touch different parts of the elephant - the one holding the trunk seems to think of
the object as a tree, whereas the one holding the tail sees it to be a rope. All of them are right of
course, in their own standings, but they are seen to be wrong by the other observers.

Nietzsche is also attributed with the saying that ‘There are no facts, only interpretations’, which
goes in line with the given statement. For one who views the reality, views not the truth
objectively, but contorts the same with his experiences, his biases and his cognition.

Copernicus, who did not publish his works until he died, is seen to be the originator of the
heliocentric model of the universe. He was afraid that he would be banished from the very
society he lived in for his views contradicted that of the catholic church. He was afraid of being
labelled insane. He is today seen as a pioneer, for now we have enabled ourselves to listen to the
music that he did.

Often, we flow in the direction of the river named society, too afraid all our lives to swim
upstream, to question, to debate, to rationalize the things we have always been conditioned to

“Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” 1
 believe - and if we do that, we are societal rejects. And humans, being the social creatures that
we are, go above and beyond just to make our place in this box.

We humans are limited by biology and mortality, but we are infinite in our existence. We still
study the Vedas and the conquests of Alexander. We still read poetry by Homer and Kalidasa -
centuries later. Even though we are obstructed by death, this mortality makes us immortal, as it
gives us the opportunity to leave our mark through generations. We wish to embrace life, to live
life to its fullest.
A linguistic example of this is the evolution of the Latin phrase - ‘Carpe Diem’, literally
translating to ‘seize the day’. With youth being passed down to generations, a lot changed, so did
this phrase, but the essence remains the same. Carpe diem is what Millennials may call ‘YOLO’,
expanding to be ‘you only live once’, so live life to the fullest.

Plato’s allegory of caves can also be seen as an example of this statement. Three men tied in a
cave, facing the wall, observe various ‘shadows’ to be the truth, cast by ‘real’ objects in the
background with the light from a fire. One man is courageous enough to break the chains of
ignorance and goes out to observe the ‘real sun’, symbolic of ‘true knowledge’, and he becomes
a philosopher. But when he goes back to free the others from the shackles in the cave, he sees
humiliation as the others laugh at him, unknown to the fact that there is a world beyond that
cave.

Similarly, several saints such as Nizamuddin Auliya, Narsinh Mehta, Mirabai had to go through
several ordeals to be able to love God in the way they saw to be true, for the onlookers were
oblivious to their devotion.

Often, we see ourselves as the dancers, which we are rightfully in our own lives, but we tend to
be avoidant of the fact that we are the onlookers for everyone else. And as the onlooker, we must
remember that the musician for each of us is different - the beats of tragedy, the bass of joy, the
acoustics of peace and the tune of distress are in different keys for each of us who dances their
way through life. We must ensure that we do not wish for anyone else to dance on the beat that
suits us, neither must we wish to dance to the beat that is right for anyone else. We are unique
and boundless pieces of the same puzzle that owe their actuality to co-operating and living in
harmony with each other, yet hold a place in our own distinction.

“Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” 2
 Einstein, whose theory of relativity still is a genre of music so complicated that most of us cannot
truly listen to it, was seen to be lazy and stupid for he asked questions that his teachers had no
answers to. The wright brothers, who invented the plane had gathered an audience at their first
trial flight - not to applaud them, but to laugh at their insanity.

We cannot cross off the fact that perhaps the inventor of fire, or the wheel, or even the first
person who started painting in the caves of Bhimbetka was not seen to be insane! Yet, today, this
prejudice is seen to have decreased, because we see people be more of a global citizen and
accepting of views different than themselves - open to the possibility of being wrong, due to the
pluralistic opinions on social media and several internet sources.

We must see life through a window, passing us by, each truth being the ultimate one in its own
right and not through a mirror, reflecting on each passerby the reflection of our own doing and
undoing, of our own eyes and experiences. We must look forward to life with a lens peculiar to
us, and only us, only then can we truly fulfil our potential in this human lifetime. As Oscar Wilde
said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

“Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” 3