Occasionally,
we observe that things turn out contrary to our wishes. At times during the course of our
talk, one of our feet starts stirring unconsciously. But the moment, we feel its movement,
the foot becomes stationary, automatically. In other words, certain acts are done by us
un-wittingly. Ironically, we delude ourselves in believing that we are masters of our
(free) will, even when our foot is shaking unconsciously on the footrest of our table. At
times, fear grips us from within, even against our will.
If we were the masters, we could foment fear or abort it ourselves.
Till
now, we must have lost our temper, landed ourselves in agony and also felt repentant,
times out of number. Even then we have not been able to rid ourselves of anger. Likewise,
we continue to indulge in hatred repeatedly at our own cost. Nor do we bid good-bye to our ego that caused us
distress so often. We go on repeating such lapses and also repenting and resolving to
avoid them. Nevertheless fear, anger, hatred and violence, have become a recurring feature
of our life. We fail to feel what after all is happening, let alone controlling such
emotional eruptions. Does it not demonstrate that we are functioning like machines? Just
as machines do not command themselves and do not even feel that
they are moving. This explains why our life is enveloped in darkness and we are seething
in woes and worries. Yet we feel, aggrieved if we are equated with machines. This hurts
our ego. Conversely if we are deified as symbols of God Himself, what a thrill of peace and pleasure pulsates in us! This is so because it
feeds our vanity.
If
we become conscious of our mechanical conduct, we can then resurrect ourselves from the
state of a machine. Seed is not a tree but it can develop into one. If the seed entertains
the mirage of regarding itself as a tree, it forfeits the possibility of blossoming into a
tree. When we realize that we are machines,
we become fully conscious of our role as such. We then realize our true identity. We come
to diagnose our ailment. And correct diagnosis relieves half of our malady automatically,
Consciousness of our true identity of being human, strengthens us and brings about a
transformation, which awakens our mind. And this awakening can never be mechanical. It is
awakened consciousness.
The
idea is that peace, truth and beauty can sprout in our life as also solace, love and
righteousness. We can certainly reach the destination where our will prevails. Then we can
deem ourselves as our own masters — as ray of divinity itself — God’s own
image. But all this is not a reality as yet. It is only the dream of feasibility and
possibility, not actuality. Would that our true consciousness transmuted such a
possibility into reality.