Creativity and Unstable Mind

Since childhood, most from my generation have been fed with this idea of controlling our restless minds for enhancing its creativity. Now I am fed up with this notion, that a controlled mind achieved via controlled breathing and meditation should be seen as the best bet for innovation.

 

I can sight several example to contradict this myth. The best example to bet against this prevalent theory are the eminent writers R  K Narayan and Khushwant Singh. Both were never academically brilliant. The ebullient, unorthodox Sardar, the perpetual agnostic admitted that exams gave him nightmares. He hated Yogas and Asanas prescribed to him, as it hardly made any difference to his fertile mind.

 

Many Creativity's products emanate from restless minds. Writers like O Henry wrote his classic stories from jail. The poet John Keats wrote his best poems when Consumption (Tuberculosis) was consuming him.

 

So also Toru Dutt, the talented Bengali poetess of 19th Century, who wrote some masterpieces before she died at the tragic young age of 21. Most of her poems were composed during her painful battle with terminal tuberculosis, which eventually claimed her.

 

Hemmingway, the brilliant American writer was suffering from depression, eventually committing suicide. So also the Oscar winning Robin Williams and our own legendary Guru Dutt. An Oscar winning Hollywood movie "The Beautiful Mind" best depicts the story of another eccentric genius with turbulent mind.

 

Kishore Kumar, arguably the most complete artist in Bollywood - an actor, singer, music director etc, was a genius but an outright eccentric. He was known to be extremely restless on the sets, but no one could match his versatility.

 

The actors Shah Rukh Khan and the cricketer Tendulkar are also known to be extremely restless. The popular actor is a chain smoker and self proclaimed  addict to video games - both tell tell signs of mental agitations.

 

Tendulkar, probably the best batsman India has ever produced, rarely gets a good night sleep before an important game. Yet, he hardly shows any sign of fatigue on field, eking out one master knocks after another.

 

And there are many such examples. The mind of a normal person may benefit from a boost from reigning it in using meditations and mind control. For a genius, a restless mind is the best bet. Geniuses are always born - rarely made. Their minds need not be altered, best left to themselves for best results.