Burst Fifty-Two :
The Value Of Originality
A Christian priest advised her parishioners rightly, “God created us originals; let us not die as duplicates.” She was appealing to them to avoid blind imitation, which surely cannot be the way to find meaning in life. Right from young age, many of us tend to get confused about what we are to do in life, how we should conduct ourselves and so on. With an utterly limited knowledge of life, we then look upon someone as our role model and begin to cleverly do everything as he or she does. Psychologically, this could be due to an unnecessary sense of insecurity within us. Whatever it is, our behavior then has departed from the natural and artificialities have crept in. An alert mind can throw light on the deviations and help us rediscover our own personality.
Life becomes an endless compromise when we have not asked ourselves, with seriousness, “What is it that I really want to do?” Coming under some influence or pressure all the time, we pass our days, weeks, months and years in playing second fiddle to the vision of some other person or some organization. “If you have no goal of your own, somebody else will have you work for his goal,” go the words of warning. We postpone working on our true calling (svadharma) for the demands from different quarters seem to be too strong. More often than not, it is not the strength of the external demands but the lack of strength within us that keeps us indecisive. We need to look within and question“Where do I truly belong?” More the clarity about this issue, greater will be our strength to face the society and make headway against the tide.
Creation has infinite variety. Every one of us is unique. It is important for us to identify what we are good at and what we love the most. Many wise counselors advise, “Be yourself. That is the cure to your ailment of depression, dissatisfaction or even stress.” Being our own true self does not mean we cut off from people and not pick anything from them. We surely can learn or even derive inspiration from others. They could draw from us too. That is different from copying the ways or manners of others. Right living has freshness of outlook and quietude of mind. Our heart is light, when we put aside the false. We drop our copied pursuits and eliminate all illusions under which we could be laboring. False prestige, misconceived ambition and prejudiced judgments set us walking a wrong path. We must see that somebody else cannot impose a purpose upon our life, though his intentions may be good. Borrowed goals cannot lead us far. We do not want to climb the ladder fast, only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall.
A lady who works 15 hours a day but is rarely seen to be stressed was interviewed. She said, “My secret is that I work for myself. Everything I do is self-motivated, which means no one else has asked me to do it. You get stressed if someone makes you stay on and tells you to finish this or that before leaving the workplace. In my case, more I work on (my own) projects, more I learn and feel satisfied.” We must envy this woman indeed who has found her niche in those three businesses that she runs. In fact her work evolved from small to big over 20 years. All she did was to honestly pursue activities that she loved. Luckily for her, market conditions were favorable so she also became a financial success. Irrespective of making much money, we would have more joy, greater energy and deeper fulfillment if only we keep busy in the field of our choice – true to our original constitution.
As the Veda says, “Let us move from the false (asat) to the real (sat).” Whom are we trying to please, really, through our sweat and toil if we are all the time away from our true home? Illusions cause unnecessary burden upon our bosom. We come upon the right direction, when we put aside the wrong promptings within us through being honest to our own conscience. Swami Chinmayananda roared, “Out of purity and silence, come words of power.” Not just words but beautiful actions also emerge from a state of inner integration.
Swami Chidananda
Varanasi
Monday, July 9, 2007