We all come across control freaks in our personal and professional lives. These people are finicky about control. They want to control everything around. I often wonder why anyone would want to control others. Why would Hitler like to control the world? Why would a boss try to control the charge? Why would a father try to control his son? Why would a husband try to control his wife?
Isn't this desire to control stemming from a deep-seated sense of insecurity? We are afraid of death and therefore want to control our lives by doing rigorous exercises and controlling our diet. So, what's wrong with that? We seek security in relationships, and that's why we want to control them. We feel secure with powers, and that's why we want to control the whole world. The problem lies with the illusion our minds create. A grand flat in a skyscraper makes us feel secure, but when we have an earthquake, the grand building becomes the biggest threat to our lives. The more we try to hold on to that building, the more vulnerable we are. We try to hold on to a relationship tightly to feel secure, but in a life-or-death situation, the same "holding on" makes us utterly insecure.
The problem is our limited awareness. The Milky Way is moving towards another galaxy called Andromeda, and both may collide and merge into a new galaxy in a few million years. However, none of us reading this post will be alive. Who knows what will happen to the Earth, let alone the little piece of land or relationship we are trying to control? Who knows about the millions of kings who tried to rule this world? The same soul we are trying to control may have passed through thousands of bodies before coming to this body, but since we are unaware of that, we identify that soul with its body and try to control that in the name of a relationship. Limited awareness makes us control freaks, and as our awareness grows, we realise the futility of control.
Arjuna will try to gather all types of arms and ammunition to be powerful, failing to realise that his mind will rebel right on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, and he will feel disillusioned. Why? Because all his ambitions and desire to control were based on a limited awareness. He wanted to do it for family, society, and near and dear ones. Now his own elders and near and dear ones are fighting against him. So the very ground on which his ambitions stand tall like a skyscraper shakes. That's when Krishna makes him aware of the larger reality.
What happened to Arjuna will happen to all the control freaks. The skyscraper of their ambitions will face an earthquake sooner or later. If nothing else, everybody has to face old age and death. Even the most powerful person on Earth can't escape death. Due to limited awareness, we feel that we are making our lives better by controlling others and yielding wealth and power. We fail to realise that we are getting trapped in our own ignorance, just waiting for a disaster. Arjuna was intelligent and chose Krishna. We choose everything else and leave Krishna. It's not easy to let go of the temptation of the grand army of Krishna and choose Krishna. We are making choices the other way around almost every moment. We choose comforts, pleasures, and control over awareness like Duryodhana. That's why we are so fearful, and due to that fear, we try to control more and more. The life of Krishna is an example of exploring infinite possibilities without being a control freak. He played all the roles with complete awareness and dropped the biggest of his creations at the drop of a hat.
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