The story of Papillon

“I would like to spit in your eye but I am afraid that it will dirty my spit.”

This sentence symbolizes for me what the book Papillon is all about. Courage in the face of almost insurmountable odds.
Papillon was written in the 1930s if I remember correctly and it is a classic that has been reprinted many times. Even now almost 70 years after the book came out if you want to purchase your copy you will find it easily available. It remains in the market and sell steadily.

This is the story of Henri Charriere, a member of the French underworld who is falsely convicted of a crime that he had not committed and sentenced to life imprisonment in French Guiana. He makes umpteen number of attempts to escape and finally succeeds. This story is about his life in prison and of course about his escape attempts.

Although Papillon is a criminal he has a sense of justice stronger than you would find in ordinary respectable people. He also has courage and a sense of loyalty to his comrades that is exemplary. Read the book for pure entertainment and re-read it to be inspired and to be filled with his indomitable courage.

The sentence I quoted above describes a scene when Papillon was being sentenced for having created some trouble by getting into a fight in the prison. The sentences meted out were very harsh and the jailors were cruel and very hard cases who did not particularly care if the prisoners lived or died. Obviously if you are dealing with hardened criminals you must be tough and harsh at times. But the prison in French Guiana was the absolute pits. Very few people escaped from there and life for the inmates was violent and precarious. If you wanted to survive there you needed to be a real hard case. Courage and physical and mental fitness and a willingness to resort to violence to defend yourself were required. Otherwise there was no way that you could survive for long.

Anyway Papillon was in front of the jailor and the jailor had just meted out a very harsh sentence to one of Papillon’s friends for having created trouble inside the prison. Papillon’s friend had had his arm broken and the jailor refused to send to the doctor to treat him. Then the jailor asked Papillon if he had anything to say. At this point Papillon made the statement above, “ I would like to spit in your eye but I am afraid it will dirty my spit.”

For sheer courage and an indomitable spirit this scene or passage in the novel is impossible to forget. I only wish I could have that much courage in the face of such odds. Papillon was truly a warrior and I hope his story is read for centuries to come.

Papillon himself is punished very harshly for making this remark and that is to be expected. But that is also not important. What is important is that we should preserve within us the spirit of the warrior as we make our way through life and be ready to stand up to injustice, especially when it concerns our friends and ourselves.

You might ask what all this has to do with eastern philosophy. Well you need to have the spirit of the warrior in order to make progress spiritually. We must awaken ourselves and our manhood and be ready to do whatever it takes. Spiritual practice is very difficult and there are so many distractions and we may not see ourselves as making progress easily. It is at this times that we need to awake the lion within us.

In Lee Iacocca’s autobiography I read a short passage where Iacocca is giving advice regarding the education of youngsters and what stream of study one should take up when young. He recommended a liberal arts education. Make yourself familiar with the great works of literature, with the thoughts of the great thinkers and philosopher s and mystics and leaders of humanity. Education should be a preparation for life and not just gaining skills that will help you get and hold on to a job. Those skills can be learned afterwards. What is more important is to be inspired, to know what Man is capable of, to have examples in front of you of how well Man is capable of handling and dealing with even the most trying circumstances. And this is what familiarity with great literature will give us.

If you want to go into the technical professions – for example a doctor or an engineer then a technical education is a must. But unless you are very clear that you want to be a doctor or a accountant or whatever go for a liberal arts education. When in doubt go for a liberal arts education. It is very difficult to make up your mind when you are young so this is a general rule which will I hope be of some use to youngsters who may happen to read this.

If you want to go into management or want to enter politics then a liberal arts education is a must. And in general as you go through life, a familiarity with the great minds and great thinkers and the heroes and leaders of past ages will be of immense help. We become infused and inspired with the spirit that they had within them.

I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful t you.

Stay tuned for more in this continuing series.

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