Change your view – Just Be yoU
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aving lived on this planet for the past 40 years and having experienced a fairly healthy number of people, things, situations and circumstances; I have concluded, based on the wisdom of the ages that – the best way to experience all, in all its richness, is by being oneself. I experience it, by being me; you experience it, by being you.
As a corollary, the not so pleasing way to go through it all would be by trying to be someone else, while experiencing that which is meant for us.
I remember a story my mom would relate to me as a little child. It was about a handsome and charming young man who had all the gifts that the gods could give to one man. Yet he lacked one thing that he desired most – wealth. So he went through most of his early youth being not so well-to-do and hoping all the while that he would get some wealth that would come to him straight from the heavens, without having to do much for getting it.
The gods too saw that they had been unjust to him by denying him this one gift and decided that they would drop a bag of gold right in his path, some day, as he walked a lonely road.
So, it happened one fine morning that he began to walk a lonely wooded path. But that day he felt that being himself was getting to be the most boring and unimpressive thing and his mind craved change, for the moment. He decided that he would change the way he saw himself today, and wondered how it would be if he lacked a couple of the five senses that were gifted so easily to him. He narrowed down the choices to being blind and deaf, like his next door neighbor boy, for the next 10 strides. Consequently, he began by covering his ears shut with both his palms and closing his eyes simultaneously. Just as he began to walk, the gods threw the bag of gold that fell a few feet before him, with a “thunk”. But he, in his new experimental avatar did not hear it fall, nor did his feet touch it as he had by now deviated from the straight line of his walk.
When the 10 long strides were done counting he let go of his ears and opened his eyes at once and saw that he stood at the edge of a deep uncovered well. Had he taken one more step he would have fallen far below, been badly hurt and possibly even died. He had been unable to foresee the well from his starting point, as it was away from his angle of view. Suddenly, realizing his foolishness, he sat on a rock staring at the road ahead of him, feeling dizzy from the shock of this unforeseen experience.
He finally, after due contemplation, mustered the courage to get up and walk home; thanking the gods for making him who he was, unlike his poor neighbor boy.
Moral: We miss a lot when we try to be someone we are not. But, of course, whatever or whoever we attempt to be, we will always have learning, even if we miss the wealth that comes our way as a natural blessing. So, change your view – Just Be yoU.
