The worst nightmare for an artist is the day when his work is to be judged by people who know nothing about the artwork. As if the work of Sri Aurobindo is to be evaluated by somebody who is engrossed in the material world. As if the work of a Michelin chef is to be evaluated by someone who has never tasted anything other than the local food. As if the NASA scientist's work is to be evaluated by someone who has never gone to school.
However, one can not avoid that. It has happened with almost everybody whosoever has tried to give wings to his dreams. People not having the wings themselves have the favorite time pass of cutting the wings of people who dare to dream. It's always easy to rub the line drawn by somebody to make our own line look bigger rather than drawing a longer line ourselves. We are lazy by nature and that's why choose to discourage and demean others who do the hard work.
All the people who have traveled on a path that is different from society have to pass these tests. They will be ridiculed by the society. Anybody, be it a person or society, which has falsity in its foundations will always be quite insecure. A tree house can never be stable. A ship in the sea can never be stable and will always have the fear of sinking. It is just at the mercy of the storms. Similarly, people who do not have the ground of truth below their feet are quite insecure. Since they are insecure, they have to adopt different ways and means to tackle these insecurities and social validation is the easiest. A drunkard likes the company of people who drink, a druggist likes the company of people taking drugs, a foody likes the company of people who like food, and a traveler likes the company of people who like to travel. That is why insecure people like the company of other insecure people. People who just comply with the norms of the organization and the society. If the entire community is afraid, then fear is not a bad thing. There is no shame. There is no need to make efforts to observe and get rid of fear. We can comfortably sit like an ostrich burying our heads in the sand.
Such people become very insecure and fearful as and when they see somebody challenging their widely held beliefs. To the extent that they can conspire to kill Buddha, and give poison to Socrates. I feel pity that the entire society is suffering and yet we keep our eyes closed reluctant to see the real issues. We close our eyes to the fact that there is so much stress in the lives of students and so many of the students are committing suicide every year due to peer pressure. We close our eyes to the fact that there is no love in this selfish society and almost everybody is using the other just as a tool to satisfy his own greed and yet there is so much dissatisfaction and sadness. We fail to notice that affluence and comforts that apparently should have turned this Earth into heaven have actually made a living hell on this Earth. We fail to examine that if resources cannot make our lives better, they can't make the lives of our kids any better.
Talking of mindfulness in this society is like dancing before the dead bodies. People are so full of thoughts that there is hardly any space in their minds for any observation. It's like a consortium of crabs in a well where one is trying to go up and every other crab is busy pulling its leg. If anyhow somebody is able to get out of the well, it never likes to come back and the crabs in the well never get to know what lies outside the well. If anybody who gets out of the well comes back to help the crabs come out of the well, he is dragged into the well to be made fun of and humiliated publically. We can't expect more from the weak people. A weak person can never support others. However, the one who moves out of the well is no longer dependent on social validation for his happiness. He has already struck the chords with inner peace. He will find people who are willing to move out of the well to the open sky. With whom he forms a bond of love where there is no negotiation. Where "giving" appears more like "taking". It fills our hearts with love and compassion and gives us the energy to go back to the well to help others who are just waiting for a little help to come out of the well. That one "innocent smile" gives us the energy and courage to fight the "cruel laughter" of society with a feeling of shock and surprise at how people can make their own life a living hell while having all the capacity to turn it into heaven.
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