Skip to main content

Dare to be Aware

 Often we do not realize how our fears are driving our existence. We have seen a financial crisis in our childhood and we make earning more and more money our life goal. We experience death in our childhood and we become finicky about death. We experience crises in certain close relationships and we become very possessive about the relationships. We experienced insult and disrespect from society and we want to control the very same society by reaching powerful positions. However, the fact of the matter remains that we remain as hollow as we were because a life lived with fear at its center can never be fulfilling.

There are two movements of life and we need to examine these movements to understand what life is. The first movement is fear and the other is love. While fear disconnects us from the rest and makes us feel insecure, love connects us to everybody. A fearful person will seek security and depending upon his experiences, he may seek security in money, power, relationships, or knowledge. However, since the root of fear is never addressed, fear remains the same. The more we accumulate wealth and more the fear of losing that, the more we gather powers and weaker we feel before the ones more powerful than us, the more we become dependent on relationships, and the more we have a fear of losing them, the more we gain knowledge and the greater is FOMO. 

The problem lies at the core of our existence. Since we are disconnected from our true selves, we are seeking some security in money, power, relationships, and knowledge. We fail to realize that life is a well-integrated system, and isolation can never make us feel secure. We inhale the air exhaled by other beings. We eat food and the biome within the body helps the digestion of that food. We are dependent upon plants and trees for our food and forests for oxygen. There is a very strong connection among all the beings in this world. Fear isolates us from this grand system while love makes us participate in the grand play of nature. The real security comes when we start participating in the grand design of nature and experience that every element of nature is playing its role so beautifully. Nature takes care of everything. The more we dance to the tune of nature the more we appreciate its fairness. In fact, the more we appreciate that there is no difference between the inner and the outer world. We love everybody around us because it is the same nature or divine that has taken different forms to manifest.

When we love, we become aware, and the more we become aware, the more we love. Love takes away all insecurities from within. We realize that nature is a big family where everyone takes care of everyone else in one or the other form. As we come out of fear-driven isolation and connect to love, we can clearly see the contribution of so many people and other elements of nature in shaping our lives. We develop gratitude and that gives us the confidence to live without fear. That also makes us feel responsible for the others. That fills us with love and compassion and we feel like playing our role to the best of our abilities. With awareness evaporates fear and we are filled with love and compassion. That changes our entire outlook towards life. The more we become aware of the grad design of nature and greater the role assigned by nature to us to perform in this world. That is the reason why all the great people in this world, be they scientists, poets, musicians, or painters were all enlightened people and were aware of the forces of nature. A fearful person, on the other hand, becomes narrow and bitter and closer and closer as life progresses. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Field of Awareness

 I presented a paper on Vipassana long back at Delhi University, and at that time, a professor there asked me a question: "Who realises the temporality of the sensations when we practice Vipassana: the mind or something else?" That question stayed with me. I told him about my experience in Estonia. Once, I went on an office tour in Estonia, where it was extremely cold at around -15 degrees. I walked outdoors for quite a long time and developed severe stomach pain. With no medicines available to me and no doctor to visit, I sat in Vipassana and began observing sensations. After about an hour of observation, the pain disappeared. I told him that I don't know whether that was a realisation of the mind or something else, but the same brain that experienced pain some time back had no pain after some time.  The question is who was feeling the pain and where that pain disappeared after observation. When we sit in Vipassana, our minds are full of so many thoughts. Usually, our m...

A "home" decorated with "bonsai"

 Somebody gifted a plant sometime back. When I look at the plant on the Table, it appears to me as if the plant had the potential to grow into a big tree, but we confined the little plant within the limits of the pot, and it has grown strangely. It has a thick stem but has small leaves and branches. We have designed the plants to look the way we like. What "I" want is more important than what the "plant" is. The plant will grow the way "I" like it to grow. And then, "I" would also claim that "I" love the plant.  Yesterday, I went to a coaching institute to get some test series for a competitive exam for my daughter. The guide there spoke for around 40-45 minutes on the risks and chances of getting selected in different competitive examinations. So much competition. Fear is instilled into the minds of the students from the very beginning. Everything is around fear. If they are not able to get enrolment in a professional course , they wi...

Kurukshetra Within Ourselves

I watched the Netflix series Kurukshetra today. It's a wonderfully made series and, in fact, made me recall my childhood series of the Mahabharata that used to be telecast on DD. Mahabharata is magical. The most magical thing about the Mahabharata is that it has no straitjacket definition of Dharma . The entire battle of Kurukshetra is for Dharma, and everybody feels that he is fighting the battle for Dharma.  When Bhishma realises that Vichitravirya needs to be married, he goes to the Swamvara of Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika and forcefully brings them to Hastinapur . Ambika and Ambalika are married to Vichitravirya, while Amba carries out penance to take revenge on Bhishma. Why did Bhishma bring these three girls against their wishes to Hastinapur? If Vichitravirya wanted to marry, he should have shown courage and participated in the Swamvara. After all, Swamvara meant that the girls wanted to marry the most courageous person. Bhishma deprived them of their rights for his attac...