The sense of "I" is so central to our existence. We make choices and set targets based on what "I" like. What is this "I"? If I were born in China instead of India, would this "I" be the same? If I were born in a different family, would this "I" be the same? We don't have the right to choose our parents, or perhaps we do, but we are not aware of it. Someone enters the game of chess with an elephant, a horse, a camel, and a queen, while the other person enters the game with just one soldier. What choices do they have? Whatever the first player does, he will win the game, and whatever the second player does, he will lose the game. But, what if the purpose of life is not to win the game of chess, but rather to develop a new game? Then what we have at the beginning of the game does not matter? All these things are just meaningless.
The greatest of the people in this world discovered that new game they wanted to play. We know the story of Einstein, who had learning disabilities like dyslexia. But he discovered a new game for himself where the queens, elephants, camels, and horses of the game are different. In the field of science, what matters is out-of-the-box thinking and that zeal and enthusiasm to discover the deepest secrets of nature. What does the concept of "I" have to do with this example?
All of us are thrown into the stadium soon after we are born. We are told that we have to win the match. The parents and relatives are sitting in the spectator gallery to cheer us up. We learn to play the game. Some of us have natural strength to play the game, society wants us to play. Some of us learn the tricks of the game and improvise. Some of us do not do so well. Our "wellwishers" want us to play the best of the inning in every match. If we play well, they get pleased and praise us, and if we lose, they criticise us and make us feel that we have not fulfilled our "responsibilities". What is responsibility? To play the match as per the expectations of the "wellwishers"? What if I don't feel like playing the match? What if I find the match to be meaningless? Then the weird sense of "responsibility" will come, and there will be quotes from Bhagwat Geeta.
When Krishna asks Arjuna to fight and do his duty, he is not asking Ved Vyasa to fight the battle. He knows very well that Ved Vyasa has chosen a different game to play. He is asking Arjuna because Arjuna has chosen to be a warrior, and he is trying to run away from the finals, not because he is disinterested in the game, but because he has a doubt that winning the match against his cousins and teachers will not be appreciated by the spectators out there in the gallery. Krishna says that you are not playing the match for the appreciation or criticism of the spectators; you are playing the game because this is what you have chosen to play. Once we have chosen the game as our "swadharma", we will give our best to the game. Winning and losing will depend upon many factors. We will just concentrate on the strategy and performance.
That is the reason why we need to choose the game we are passionate about. Not due to the appreciation or criticism of the spectators. The spectators will cheer us up in the first match, or the second, and then we have to play the game for our entire lives. Even if the spectators decide to sit in the gallery all through our lives, we have to play the game on the field. They can't join us on the field. If we play some game that we are not passionate about, all through our lives, we will end up being an average player, or in a worse case, may be kicked out of the field and sit in the gallery just to encourage our kids to play the same game. "I" am not a cricketer or tennis player thrown into the field by parents and society; rather, "I" am what "I" am meant to play. The sooner we discover, the better and more time we get to play the game that "I" am meant to play.
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