“The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest”

“The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest”

Don’t read this article. You are forbidden from reading it. You have three seconds to turn the page and not read this.

Did you? Did you turn the page? If you did, you would not be reading this now. Now, if you are reading this, you could be called “Eve”, “Pandora” or simply, human.

Curiosity is a quality imbibed in every one of us, since we were born. We were always curious. Curious to know how to stand on two legs. Curious to know how to use our hands to do an action. Curious to know how to ride a bicycle. Curious about everything. Curiosity shaped our world as we know it today. But, is Curiosity a good thing?

Ok, people, Story Time. Long ago, not so long ago, Epimetheus created life on Earth- millions of animals and gave each of them special characteristics. His brother, Prometheus, on the other hand, created a God-like creature from sand, called “Man”. Prometheus was, however, punished for that, but that is a story for another time. Now, the King of Gods, Zeus, decided to gift Epimetheus. He, along with all the other gods, made the first woman, called “Pandora”. Now, Pandora had a unique quality, called “Curiosity”. On the wedding day of Epimetheus and Pandora, Zeus gave them a locked box as a wedding gift and told them to not to open it. Ever. Now, Pandora tried her best to ignore the forbidden box in the corner of her house.  She sometimes asked her husband, “What do you think is in that box?” Epimetheus would bluntly tell her that he did not care. One day, Pandora gave in to desire. She thought, “Why would Zeus give us a box if he did not want us to see what was inside?” While Epimetheus was away, she put the key in the lock and opened the box. What did she unleash? Chaos. From inside the hidden box, came Death, Old Age, Sickness, Hatred, Jealousy, Strife and all other forms of negativity.

              Let’s assume someone tells you not to touch something. Or look at something. Or do something. Honestly, doesn’t one feel the urge to do what they have been told not to do? We all have broken the rules one time or the other. Why? Why do we do, or want to do the thing we are not supposed to? Because, we assume, in our tiny complex minds that, the thing we are not supposed to do, is the thing that we should be doing. We believe that the thing we are told not to do, will yield good results. We suppose that the fruit which we are told not to eat, will be the sweetest fruit ever.

                Adam and Eve were rumoured to be the first man and woman on Earth. God put them in a garden, called “The Garden of Eden”, and told them they could eat every fruit from any tree that they wanted, except from one peculiar tree in the middle of the garden called, “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. Eve began to believe that the tree from which she and Adam were not supposed to eat fruits, bore the sweetest fruits of the garden. One day, with the help of a deceiving serpent, she plucked a fruit from the forbidden tree, and ate it along with Adam. What happened? God became angry and Adam and Eve were thrown down on Earth to suffer- work, pain, agony and death.

            So, we have one thing cleared: In the lives of every single one of us, we have a forbidden fruit. And we want it. Why? Curiosity.

Now, the question arising in every one of our minds is: Is the forbidden fruit really the sweetest? Is it always the sweetest? Is eating the fruit or doing the deed worth breaking the rules?

        I need you to think of one situation where you have broken a rule to do something. And if you don’t have an instance where you have broken a rule: a) Oh my God. How did you manage to do that?! And b) Imagine you were to break a rule. Tell me, or rather, yourself, was the end result worth it? Did doing the forbidden deed justify the atrocious breaking of the rule?

       The answer is: Unknown. Why? Because when we decide that we are going to be breaking rules, orders, and what not to do something, or, as I like to put it, eating the forbidden fruit, we already register in our minds that the fruit is going to be the sweetest. Let the fruit be the sourest in the garden, but it will taste the sweetest in our mouths. But, did Pandora feel that her deed was amazing enough to counteract the evils that came out of the box? What was sweet about releasing Evil into the Earth?

                Pandora, agreed, released Evil into the world- Strife, Pain, Guilt, Theft, Treachery, etc. But from the box came one small butterfly called “Hope”. This one good thing that came out of the box of Evil, saved the world. Eve’s curiosity may have led to the downfall of man, onto Earth- to work and feel pain, old age, suffering and Death. What was good about that? The good thing was that Man learnt to work. He learnt to earn the things he desired. He learnt to accept the things he deserved.

            ●- This is Evil.

                      ○- This is Good.

          ☯- This is Life.

Bad in Good, and good in bad, coexisting as One.

So, in my opinion, one should not be afraid to be curious. The forbidden fruit may not be the sweetest, but the satisfaction you get in doing it is. After all, if Man had not been curious and explored, the world as we know it today, would not exist. Remember the proverb, “Curiosity killed the cat”? It implies that being curious often leads to danger. But in reality, Curiosity killed the cat, but Satisfaction brought it back. Know that the forbidden fruit is forbidden for a reason, but, think not of the result, but the reason. Analyse, Anticipate and Act.

“Curiosity killed the cat, but the cat had 9 lives.”

(Something very silly that I penned down in 2016)