A letter to a friend

Hi Uday,

There is one thing to ask, haunting me for a very long time.

Why there is a great urge of expression and why one feels something more than just a success when you think someone understands you?

The homo sapience sapience is a species evolved with a fundamental tendency of being in a group, which is the main reason for the achieved height of evolution. But at this stage, after 7 thousand years of life in the “designer” environment with an evolving brain, we have far better receptors for Feelings a far better tool box for judgment, and a highest confidence in an individual any species ever had. Then why this?

Reply at your convenience.
Take care.

Dhara
~~~

Hi Dhara,

What a coincidence! Just yesterday I saw a movie and one dialogue will fit in the answer of your question.

Beverly Clark: Do you know why we get married?
Other Person: Passion, I guess.
Beverly Clark: No, it is not passion. It is the need to share our life, to share each of our moments with someone so close to us. We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things… all of it, all of the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness’.”

(from movie Shall we dance)

The great urge of expression is nothing but an inherent hard-coded urge to share. Our life gets meaning by sharing it with others. It is not only big things that we want to share, it is also life’s small trivial things that by sharing we may make meaningful. The seemingly introvert person might not share one’s thoughts or emotions, still one might be sharing one’s Soul in unknown ways. Just as someone has said: No man is an island. all of us are connected with unseen threads of divine. Sharing only manifests that connection with others, and with Self. Sharing is the highest expression of deeper Love.

We all have one other basic instinct, to get Love and recognition. When someone knows you, both of you have same vibration frequency, that is to say, you both are on the same plane (of mind and/or beyond mind). Anything that matches our basic frequency creates resonance (remember 11th science?).Actually, this is the best way of finding your soul-mate – the one with whom your basic frequency matches. There is thrill and joy if you can see and touch the hidden treasure that each one of us carries within us. Understanding someone truly is not easy. Understanding self is even harder. Success is a very small word for the feeling that you get when you can achieve it. You feel connected. You feel part of One.

Yes, you were right in saying that during all these years of evolution, we have progressed much, and mostly due to working as a group. Even if there were few bright sparks of humanity who have changed the course of history, it were large groups as an instrument which spread and live their message (Rama,Krishna,Christ,Budhha,Mahavir and others). This “far better receptors for Feelings a far better tool box for judgment, and highest confidence in an individual any species ever had” does not imply that man can stay within himself. If anything, evolution has made him wise and he understands that being in group can help him or restrict him in his way of life, only if he can choose the correct one.

Of course, each individual is unique. Each individual has one personal goal to fulfill during one’s stay here. That way one’s journey is alone. But, Sharing makes it colorful. There are many hidden works being done through us. Being with God’s other children can make us realize that we are also part of all and that we also belong to Him.

Hope this will help you in your search…
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, questions and search…
Thank you for making me realize all these as I wrote it…

Bye,
-Uday

Our Independence Day

Today is 15th August, the Independence day of India. I remember how happy I used to be on (and before) this day. We used to go to school for flag hoisting and then there will be some cultural programs. I remember the thrill and tears sprouting in my eyes with pride when I sing “Jan Gan Man”. Then? a patriotic movie on Durdarshan. Most probably Gandhi. I have seen it for number of times and still I want to see it again and again. Though it is quite difficult task to give justice to one person as big as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in a movie of 3 hours, Sir Richard Attenborough has honestly got the real picture out of him. Are you a Gandhi lover or hater? Go, watch the movie.

But today I am not going to write about that movie or anything else. I want to write about the recent incident here at South Korea. (I am here for office work at Samsung Electronics). Today, our Korean counterparts invited us to have lunch with them at some restaurant. Today is a holiday in India and so in Korea. Coincidently, both have their independence day today. India got freedom from British empire on 15th August,1947 and Korea got freedom from Japan on 15th August,1945. One of my managers, Mr. Jaeman Kim asked me about our freedom fight when I told him that today is our Independence Day also. Then, I told him about how English man came to India in early 15th century, how they increased their business in 17th century, How East India Company started ruling part of India and how finally they took over the reins of almost the whole India. He asked me was there any protest or war against them? I told him about 1857 revolt that unfortunately was not successful at the extent it should be. He asked me then you had war with Briton? And I just smiled. I asked him,” Have you ever heard of the name of a gentlemen called Mahatma Gandhi ?”

He suddenly grinned. “Yes”, he said, “Tell me more about him.” Well, those who know me know that there are few topics on which I can talk passionately for hours. And Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is one of them. I told him about how his movement was different than other conventional means of revolt. How he used non-cooperation and non-violence to protest peacefully and with virtue against British Empire. How he united one nation which was previously just a cluster of big-small kingdoms. How he gave new meaning to freedom as a spiritual movement along with our inner being. How he worshiped Truth and saw God as nothing but Truth. I told him few incidents about satyagrahi movement. That satyagrahis will go without any arms to British police. They will hit them like anything. But, no counter attack, not even slight protest!! They will bear it with a lion’s heart and give way to next group. And they just come forward and come forward and come forward…until British police finally had no courage to hit more. This is courage. This was the first time, a person removed fear and installed courage to common men of this country. Though, history will not tell anything, this itself was a very radical shift in terms of perception in the people of India.

He was just bewildered! He told me,” I can not imagine how one can fight with his enemy without any arms and just with non-violence and lots of courage?” He said:” Korea got freedom because after 2nd world war, Japan was defeated and few Korean groups fought with Japan and won freedom for their country. Then he added,” Both Korea and India got freedom at similar time but it is because of Mahatma Gandhi that you have won your freedom with such a peaceful way. We didn’t have any person like Mahatma Gandhi and so we could not have such virtues with us. I just wish we would also have somebody like Gandhi”

I consider this as a very genuine tribute! How true! And at what good time I was a witness of something like this. I just said in my mind: “Now, it is like my country’s Independence day. Happy Independence day, India!”

P.S : For those who consider Gandhian methods as out-dated, they are right. Gandhi means practical solutions. Even he would have not gone with Charakha or some other methods in this age. He would have devised new practical and effective ways to deal with the existing problems. That was Gandhi.