Step out and see the Big picture
Once there were three friends who planned a trip to Bangkok. As they landed the three friends parted ways, the one who wanted to explore sense gratification saw the city as home to sensual pleasure, the other one did not notice this but went to explore the beautiful monasteries and temples in the city. The third one did not see either of these all he saw was shopping malls, markets where he went to shop. All of them visited the same city, but they had different desires and could find only what they had in mind.
We have created a small world around us that is too comfortable and it is constructed with our desires. Anything that is new or different from this small world, we get threatened by it and like to either disbelieve or ignore it or we like to change it to suit our desires.
Noble laureate and French physiologist, Alexis Carrel. In his book, Man the Unknown, he states: “Our mind has a natural tendency to reject the things that do not fit into the frame of scientific or philosophical beliefs of our time.
For example, when it comes to relationship there is always a conflict of interest because we see what we want to see in others, and if we don’t find it then we like to change the person to our comfort. We expect the person to behave the way we want. If we have had a conflict with someone or we dislike someone we tend to look for faults, and incidences when they have behaved rudely, overlook occasions when they behaved politely. The common flaw with the human approach is that we tend to use our material senses to understand the divine. We want to decide the correctness and faults in knowledge with our intellect, which his highly limited.
Krishna in Bhagvad Gita 15.11 says…
yatanto yoginaśh chainaṁ paśhyanty ātmany avasthitam
yatanto ‘py akṛitātmāno nainaṁ paśhyanty achetasaḥ
The endeavouring transcendentalist, who is situated in self-realization, can see all this clearly. But those who are not situated in self-realization cannot see what is taking place, though they may try to.
This verse tells us to endeavour and strive to see the world with a clear mind. Those blinded by the limited knowledge, perception and desires cannot see things that are far beyond.
According to Nyāya Darśhan, one of the ancient schools of Hindu philosophy, such thinking is called kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya (the logic of a well-frog). The story behind this is of a frog which has been living within the walls of a well, unaware of the world outside. Once an ocean frog gets washed off and falls into that well. The well-frog enquires to the newcomer, “How big is the ocean, where you lived?” The ocean frog replied, “It is huge.” The well-frog said, “It must be 5 times bigger than this well.” To this, the ocean frog said, “No much bigger than that.” The well-frog said, “Is it 10 times bigger?” “Much more than that,” said the ocean frog. The well-frog was now curious and said, “A hundred times?” To this, the ocean frog replied, “A hundred is nothing; the ocean is much bigger than that.” The frog from the well did not believe the ocean frog and said, “You are a liar, how can any place be a hundred times bigger than my well?” The well-frog had been living there its whole life, it had not seen anything beyond the walls of that well. Therefore, its mind could not comprehend the idea of a vast ocean, or the world that existed outside of that well.
The day we start to see the wide world around us we will achieve success far beyond contemplation. Just we need to step out of our own world of comfort and walk the right path. The right path will come only with the clarity of thoughts and diligent endeavour, we will certainly achieve success.
Quick tips
- Those blinded by the limited knowledge, perception and desires cannot see things that are far beyond.
- Just we need to step out of our own world of comfort and walk the right path.
- The right path will come only with the clarity of thoughts and diligent endeavour
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