Rainbow is the Sunlight And Vice Versa
(This piece is dedicated to all the peace lovers in the world who believe in oneness or unity of humanity and thus are against the hatred, prejudices, discrimination, injustices, wars and genocides of all kinds)
According to the laws of physics, when after the rain, sunlight strikes raindrops in the atmosphere, they act like a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into various beautiful colors. In other words, rainbows are formed when sunlight is scattered from raindrops into the eyes of an observer or viewer who must be standing with his back towards the sun. In this way, light scattered by many drops reaching the observers eye will appear as a colourful rainbow
Moreover, the sky also appears orange or red during sunrise/sunset. This shows that sunlight has in it every colour that one can think of (except black which is not regarded as colour but absence of all colors). And a really stranger or very amazing thing about sunlight is that when all the colors with their innumerable shades (rainbow provides the “toolbox” to make all the colors, but it doesn’t have all the colors because brown, pink, white are not in the rainbow, but could be made by mixing rainbow colors.) are mixed together in the right proportion as they are in the sunlight they (again) become white, the colour of “Truth” and “Purity” as well as “Equality” and “Inclusiveness.”
And as the rainbow is actually sunlight, the colourful or multicoloured arc, that it makes, is also called optical illusion because, according to some scientists, colour doesn’t actually exist. It is the white light that enables us to perceive all the colours of rainbow. In other words, colour is our brains’ way of processing light wavelengths. That is why the definition of color is certainly an issue.
However, Scottish poet Alexander Anderson (who is said to have generally written under the pseudonym “Surfaceman”) makes an effort to solve the riddle:
What is it all but a symbol
Of your petty hopes and fears,
A rainbow over the shadows,
And sunshine through our tears.
Thus the rainbow with its many colours is also a symbol of unity in diversity as there are as many faiths and beliefs that people have as there are colours in the world. But the beauty and the elegance of the rainbow is that it merges sky and land across borders, cultures, faiths and thus beyond all sorts of barriers reflecting the inclusiveness or equality of all humans irrespective of there apparent differences.
In this context, it is important to understand that diversity doesn’t mean inequality nor differences mean rivalry. And this has been very poignantly illustrated in a story or a wise narrative by a famous scholar Sheik Saadi, (one of the major Iranian poets and learned men of medieval period)
The narrative is is under:
“Once there were four traders who were from different regions of the world (one was English, one was Arabic, one was Persian and one was Urdu speaking from the sub-continent) and so they spoke different languages. They were going to some country to sell goods and their route was the same. Hence, they decided to go together to have a safe and pleasant journey. There purpose and destination was same but their cultures and ways of life were different. In other words, they shared the same basic objective of selling goods, earning livelihood, making profit. But their differences were superficial i.e., their dress code, their language and so on.
During their journey, when they felt tired, they decided to take some break and refresh themselves by having some food and drink.
They had no interpreter and each tried to know what the other wanted to eat. One said in English that he wanted to eat “Grapes”. The Arabic said that he wanted to eat “Anab” which also meant grapes. The Persian and Urdu speaking said they wanted to eat “Angoor” that also mean grapes.
They all wanted to eat the same fruit, but as were not well acquainted with one another’s language, therefore they thought that they all wanted different things and thus started arguing. And in the heat of the moment, they got into scuffle and everyone was wounded.
Fortunately , a passerby (who perchance also knew these four languages) noticed their squabbling and bickering and reached to them to know what was the matter? And after some effort, he came to know that they were fighting due to misunderstanding and, actually, there was an agreement about what to eat. He then, explained to them that they were fools and were using different words for the same fruit.
When reality dawned upon them, they again became the good fellow travelers.
Thus like rainbow that is an optical illusion, the differences between humans are also not real or of fundamental nature. Beneath the surface we all are connected to one source: The shinging Sun giving life, light, and warmth to all creatures.
Lessson
When, in the words of Walt Whitman, we keep our face towards sunshine shadows fall behind us.
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Footnotes:
ii) https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/rainbow/
