dare to be your true self

Dare to be your true self

Standing on the beautiful landscapes of the Mount Entoto in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, I gazed at the sky and yelled at him; “why the results are not always as per the expectations”…..comes back the voice; “Calm down my son, because it just doesn’t matter”.

I am surprised, where the voice came from…..is it from the sky? Is it the God himself? Oh, It’s from my inside….amazing, someone always within me, yet so indiscoverable… I asked him, who are you??

The voice came back, I am your friend, the one you never had faith on; I am the origin of everything, you never acknowledged; I am the creator, you never believed on…… “Why do you talk to me then?” I asked. “For the same reason, I talked with Arjuna during the epic of Mahabharata; he had wisdom to understand but yet he was confused; he was capable yet he lacked self-belief; he knew he was wrong yet he questioned to gain the better understanding. You question my presence too; I had no option but to answer them myself, because nobody else might do so”.

“Ohhh, okkkk….am I overwhelmed???….no I am still supercilious; where do you reside and where have you been so far” “I am there with you, within you, within every living and non-living; I am in your identity, I am in your mood swings, I am in your dreams and I am in your explorations. I am in everything, everybody and present everywhere”. “But, you are not visible, anything invisible is outside my knowledge of existence; how can I believe you” I giggled. “Well, I didn’t expect such an illogical question from you; do you see air, do you see vision, do you see taste or do you see smell or have you ever seen your breath….but don’t they exist?? Human beings by their very basic nature depend on their most common senses to perceive and hence understand the world around them; but it doesn’t mean that nothing beyond their palatable senses exists…., just don’t be deceived by the visible world, open up your horizons. I value your questions, your logical and well thought of questions; it’s the right questions which lead you to the right answers. Questions lead to answers, answers lead to knowledge and knowledge in turn leads to wisdom; you are on your path to wisdom, my son.” “Ok, so you created us; but why??”, I was annoyed with the limpid superiority in this confident voice. “Hmmm, this answer is not so simple. To understand that, first you need to understand yourself. Tell me, do you have to breathe??” Oh yes, I have to because otherwise, I will die, I answered sarcastically. “Wrong, you don’t have to breathe actually, you just breathe. Breathing for you is an automated system in your body; you actually don’t have any control over your breathing. You just can’t stop breathing by yourself; some other external factor has to force that onto you. Likewise, now think yourself as an organ of a much bigger body, e.g. the earth. You are an automated part of that body system earth. In the similar fashion, the Earth happens to be an automated functionality of a much bigger system, what you call as The Solar System; likewise the Solar system as the part of that immense galaxy and the Galaxy as an automated part/organ of the endless universe. Now, do you see the magnanimity of this whole system and do you see your limited yet so important role in this limitless creation.” That is massive, please go on…. I was getting anxious to hear more and understand the essence of this conversation.

“For every system to work properly, all it’s organs and parts also need to work in the manner, they are designed to work or else, the whole system will collapse.” Yes, sure; I exhaled. “ So my friend, in this complex creation of the universe, every smallest entity has some specific function to perform and it certainly includes you too.” “So, does that mean, everything is already written for me? If that is the case why is there a question of right or wrong?”. I popped back with a lot of confusion. “Well, when I said that you have a specific task to perform, it didn’t mean that you are actually doing that. I created life in the simplest form of cells and then formulated the plan of evolution. Many complex creatures like mammals, reptiles, amphibians were the result of this process of evolution. Human beings so far have been the most complex creation. They are not only complex in terms of their DNA coding, they are also complex because they have the freedom to think and decide for themselves. Although, every living or non-living thing is close to my heart but Human beings due to their capability to think deeply and exalt in their achievements are closest to me. Due to their shear capability to achieve greatness and manoeuver, they can be God-like. But this same mind which makes them think also perplexes them. They forget about their reason to live and get trapped in the insignificant materialistic temptations. I am sure you are even more confused by now and have several doubts. Well, let me pose it this way, Human beings are born to achieve excellence by using their minds to help me put the things in order and create new things to become God-like. The ultimate objective is always to maintain the equilibrium of this universe and bring harmony among various species in this ecosystem. They started well by creating the concept of Society. The social nature of human beings brought them closer to each other. But in that very basic concept of society, they alienated the rest of the world and the whole ecosystem. The same society also became much more complex with time and brought further divisions based on cast, creed, ethnicity, nationality, race, wealth etc. When human was afraid of something, he conceptualized and idolized me in various forms to take shelter in those scary moments. This idolization then resulted into various followers of different idols and in turn gave rise to the concept of Religion. And then after, human beings have never stopped fighting over the most trivial matters, the reason unknown even to me….(laughs).” “Oh, that was really complicated”, I thought. “But by this do you mean that human beings should not even worship. I have seen people so dedicated in your service and still you complain. Moreover, what is the harm if some people can breathe easy and do away with their fears by idolizing and is it not that you somehow are responsible for the creation of different religions too.” I, for sure am again confused.

“Good question but if you still try to listen and comprehend carefully, many of your doubts will automatically go away. First of all, concept of Religion is not evolved from me; it evolved from the Human being’s timid and meek psyche. You never wanted to be felt alone so you created something which can always make you feel safe and alleviate your loneliness and fears. Secondly, I didn’t say that idolizing is wrong but being a fanatic and rudimentary to dictate the terms of a specific religion, demeaning other’s thoughts and sentiments, creating a ruckus over silly matters based on your beliefs and then creating a further divide and disharmony within the same species (human beings) is not rational. Your civilization has grown up to that extent now where when you say that you belong to a particular religion or nationality, you automatically say behind the lines that your religion/nationality is better than the other”. “Hmmm, I understand the dilemma now….but don’t you think that having an identity is also needed. How would somebody recognize me, if I don’t have a surname, nationality, religion etc. Is it not again to put the things in order and the basis of society?” I asked. “Ok, I agree with your point here that having an identity is crucial to put the things in order. But that is where I started from that you are made to bring balance to the universe. You must always think to keep the things in the equilibrium state before doing anything. For example, if you have a nationality and a surname, why not to use that modestly as an identity criteria and not to brag about it. You should be respectful of who you are but remember there is always a very thin line between being respectful to yourself and being proud looking down on others. Moreover, before feeling so respectful for yourself, you should also introspect that what is that you have done for the society, for the fellow human beings, for the ecosystem or for your mother earth because serving them is like serving me. If you then respect yourself, then my son, I am so much proud of you.”

“Now, since I have explained your reason of existence; let me throw more light on your point of “Right and Wrong” and “Destiny”. When, I say that each individual is created to serve a special cause; So, actually each one of you is a special and unique gem. Since your birth, I start giving you signs for your destiny in the form of dreams, aspirations and your natural tendencies. These signs are always deep hidden in your sub-conscious mind and come on the upper surface when you try to listen to your soul and try to believe in yourself. Most interestingly, though these signs are so clear initially, people get tempted to the distractions created by themselves. sUnable to leave a well set lawyer job in order to pursue a life-long passion in wild life photography or forcing himself in an engineering program instead of following up his passion of sports are a couple of most common and simplest examples where the people don’t follow the path to their destiny and get bamboozled by their intricately set rules and social stigmas. Such actions are mostly evident when the individuals are more interested in the results and not on what they are born to do. They follow the apocryphal destinations based on the contemporary trends, social pressures and monetary temptations. Oh, I forgot to mention, after the creation of Religion, the next biggest distraction created by Man is “Money”. Something created in order to give uniformity to the transactions and remove disputes is now the biggest cause of disputes. Every other concept and system like Religion, Nationality etc put forth by Man has started malfunctioning because of this.” “So, is making money to live a good life and to give your family a better lifestyle a bad thing. I don’t agree with you here, God”….I snapped diffidently. “Hahahahaaa…..that is one most common complaint I always hear from you people. I am not amazed that you couldn’t grab the actual point. Well, so it is like this; there are 2 ways to give the direction to your life. The first one which normally is very popular among human beings is based on the external factors like Money, social status, what your parents want, religious obligations and some more similar reasons. Here your life is not ruled or owned by you. You live somebody else’s life, keeps questioning to yourself that why are you still unhappy while you have achieved everything you wanted to and one day die unhappy. Eventually, You didn’t live happily, mostly insignificant to the whole world and when you die, nobody cared either. This form of life is lived by maximum human beings as most of them lack self belief. It is this lack of self-belief which turns them to take shelter of “God” as they need a shoulder to cry on and always wish to get a magic wand to correct everything. These miracle seeking people forget that miracle is within them. They had every opportunity to reach the acme of their potential, only if they had listened to themselves and not the others. The other form of life is led by you, your dreams, your aspirations and your actual identity. Your identity is not what your surname is or which God you follow; your actual identity is what you are from inside. In this form of life, you discover your true self and gain happiness in just everything you do. Here you follow your instincts, follow your dreams and are not worried about the results because it is the path you are following which gives you extreme contentment. I have always given this message to human beings in various forms that they must follow their inner self and then do the “Karma” whole heartedly without thinking about the results. Now, you would ask that how is it possible to do something without thinking about the results. Let me already answer you that; when you think about the results which are never in your control, you tend to become attached with it. This attachment becomes the source of your happiness or sadness based on the outcome. When the results are not favourable, you lose your mental peace because of the same attachment and eventually start feeling a pressure within yourself. You become desperate and forget the logics. This pressure and illogical stance towards life then pulls you towards a bigger chasm of a frenzied and unhappy world. Let us talk with an example; you are given a task of breaking a wall and have been armed with a hammer. Now, is breaking the wall (which is the result) actually in your control?? Ofcourse not. What is in your control is, examining the wall properly to identify the weakest point, marking that area and then hitting the hammer with maximum force. You have no control on how many attempts it would take to break the wall or if it will even break or not. But if you just focus on your actions which are in your control, your chances of success exceed much more. On the other hand, if you just focus on breaking the wall, you will get attached to that result, due to this with every hit at the wall you will expect the wall to break. Every unsuccessful attempt will bring desperation to you and eventually you tend to become disoriented and defocussed from what you were supposed to do. I have taken this simplest example, you can try this out in your practical world anytime. One must have the focus on a proper Plan of action to execute and have a vision for the accomplishments; the results will automatically follow.” “Hmmm, I get you. But why I didn’t understand these things initially itself; probably I lack the courage to think beyond or I might be imperfect in this perfect world and just not worth it.” “My Son, you are what you think. I have ordained you with such tremendous power of thought that you can become anybody or reach anywhere you wish for. Yes, you can be the president of a country or you can be the Artist you always wanted to be in your life; as I said earlier, what is required is the self-belief. As far as your imperfection is concerned, the world is perfect only due to the imperfections around. Just look around; the imperfect shape of a cloud makes the sky so beautiful. It’s the rapidly changing imperfect movement of a river which makes it so pleasant to watch. Don’t forget the improper and imperfect shapes of the mountains which give your eyes a reason to glow. The wind when blows in it’s whimsical ways in different directions, doesn’t it give the whole world it’s share of the breeze…?? Don’t think about your imperfections; nobody in the world is imperfect. Everything has a reason to exist. So, don’t succumb to self-pity, don’t assess your perfections based on worldly parameters, just be yourself. Be like The river, be like the wind, be like an imperfect tree giving perfect shade and perfect fruit to those who sit underneath. Just be your true self.”

“But, What if I fail and not able to digest the defeat? At least by following the life of others, I am keeping many hearts happy”….I came back defending myself; probably for the last time.

“You fail only when you give up. Till the time you have the courage to be back on your feet and face the adversary again, you are not defeated. You may lose a battle but not the war. You will get wounded, but those wounds are there to transform you into a stronger soul. Don’t forget, the strongest of the characters emerge from the toughest of the circumstances. And forget not that these scarred characters lead the world eventually to a better and more beautiful world. Accept your wounds with grace, because those make the foundation of your gradually strengthening inner self. Another point my friend, the hearts filled with discontentment and lacking self-belief, can never give somebody happiness. To make others happy, first find the true reason of your own happiness. The toughest thing in life is to stand by something; standing by your wills or standing by somebody else’s will; you can be friends to many but when it is about lending your hands to your friends and close ones with a life-long commitment, you will fail with your shaky hands. Only the strong hands which have the courage to lift the mountains of their own dreams and aspirations are capable of lifting the spirits of other people too.”

 “Oh yes, I can understand now the reason of my problems, Oh yes, I too am completely disoriented and not been myself. Thanks to you god, you have helped me out today. Could you give me a Mantra which can lead me and every human being to happiness and can be always followed in those scary times of delusions”….I pleaded.

“Mo amie; Don’t be afraid of changes, don’t be scared of failures, don’t be too attached with the worldly delusions to disembark yourself from your journey of self-exploration and wisdom; have self-belief so as to dare to be your true self and respect the true form of others as each one of you is special and your life is much larger and has so much to offer than you can even imagine of.”

V R Bhardwaj