Grownups too unmindfully pick up negative impressions, which adversely affect their psyche. Two desperate young men came looking for their future prospect. I asked them: Why you two look so low?
"Sir, despite our best efforts, we thrice failed to clear mandatory qualifying examination that a foreign educated medical graduate needs to pursue medical profession in India. Now, we need to either get back to the country where from we graduated to pursue our profession. Else look for alternative means to earn our living here in our native land.” They responded.
Question arose: Were they incompetent or simply destined to meet failure? For answer, I asked them: “Were the questions out of your syllabus?” “No, we could not recall the answer in time.”
It, thus, came out that their problem was rooted in the sense of failure to find a birth in any medical school here in India. To pursue their dream, they then joined a medical school abroad. The impression of failure made a deep impact on their psyche. That bred in a sense of insecurity and thereby identity crisis. That, however, did not play out during their study abroad. For, all other fellow students were similar – all having secured admission by paying heavy capitation fee. But once back to India, the sense of insecurity lying dormant thus far got triggered. They, thus, began with a negative note - apprehensive of failure at the qualifying examination. Their disoriented mind did not let them recall what were very much there in their memory. They were offered lesson in how to come out of their negative bind. They sincerely followed the advisory and within a month there after they cleared their examination.
The sense of identity crisis takes a still devilish turn, if it ever gets into the consciousness of group existence. All the communal flare up and societal conflicts owe their genesis to this very factor.
Here, the role played by ahamkara deserves attention once again, as it is this very faculty of mind that wills upon how to negotiate the callings of life. More often ahamkara unmindfully gets carried away with inherent tendencies of mind, which then becomes its defining principle, as if that would be its end task. Whence it doesn’t feel the necessity to invoke buddhi for reality check. They won’t look beyond for better options if any in sight either. Say for instance, by any chance a saint and a thief, both happen to retire at the same place. In deep slumber, both forget what and who they were. Once awake, their respective inherent tendencies involuntarily begin driving them.
Ahamkara does also get drawn toward delusionary tempting influences of seeming world and takes them on their face value. They then get tempted to set them as dream destination and chase them blindfolded. Even while responding to external provocation, often ahamkara takes them on their face value. Following which, manasa (sense aided mind) unmindfully reacts animal like on instinctive judgment. One, thus, is unable to act with prudence. In both situations one fails to invoke one’s discriminatory faculty for due diligence and with obvious consequences.
So, often we fail to make use of our most profound empowerment tool – buddhi (faculty of discriminate intelligence) - an exclusive human preserve. It is on this very strength human beings qualify to be termed as the most privileged creation in this living world. It is again pertinent to note that this very empowerment tool also enabled civilization having evolved thus far out of its primitive stage. Ostensibly, if we don’t use of our own empowerment tool, who else is to be blamed? We thus, fail to put in our qualitative best, and become a victim of the vagaries of our own mind.
The question now is: How to reclaim wholesome powers of mind, mostly lying dormant, and come out with our best? Given our power of freewill, which is duly aided by the faculty of discriminate intelligence, it is very much within our reach.
It is, however, easier said than done, as habits die hard. They keep pulling us back again and again. To go beyond those limitations, you need to turn your attention inward to figure out what plays out within mind. That will help you identify and acknowledge inherent infirmities of mind. The ground is thus laid down for corrective initiatives with the help of fresh educative inputs. Following which, you may be able to negotiate the callings of life with relative ease and comfort. Life may then turn into a beautiful experience.
The writer is an astrologer, vastu consultant and spiritual counsellor. Connect with him at
Tel: 91-11-9818037273/9871037272
