The ego, the law, a trial and Franz Kafka.
He who devotes his heart to this world will be subjected to three conditions: endless grief, unquenchable desire and futile hope.
- Imam al-Sadiq (may God have mercy on him)
The Trial is a text, which brings a sense of trouble and unease to the reader. The underlying themes, the basis of feelings that Kafka writes upon are frustration, confusion and irony. A cocktail of fervorous emotions, combined with the perfect situations depicting the ignorance of man, result in an endless onslaught of futile hope, self pity and struggle, ultimately ending in submission.
Franz Kafka was a peculiar individual growing up or rather struggling against a society, which sought to wipe out the individuality of a man who wished to live faithful to himself. This faith naturally formed its foundations in the divine, with externalization occurring through his literature. Franz Kafka inherited Judaism from his father. As with all things inherited, one doesn’t have a choice in two matters; what is being inherited and if it is inherited. Judaism was his inheritance and Judaism would be his religion.
The divine, religion and the worshipper have a relationship which is akin to water, the bottle in which it is contained and the thirsty man. The thirsty man yearns for the water and is thank full for the container that contains his salvation. The true worshipper is one who yearns for guidance and the divine, finds it held within a religion, the container, thus is able to access it by correct use of the container. The issue with religion, in the past and present is one that is rooted in the fundamental error of man. Subjugation to the ego. The ego or the evil spirit is contained within man, engaged in a continuous struggle against man to divert him from the righteous path. This ego’s existence is based upon this world and it’s many illnesses; greed, envy, anger, deceit, pride, power etc. Pride is an emotion which has shaped...