One for All and All for One
Entering my twenties, away from the crystallized opinions in a warm, cozy, home as I took first few tentative steps on my own, I remember multitude of strange and new ideas all around me making me dizzy with a warped excitement as I breathed them in. Open and willing to explore new point of views I remember a great conversation with a wise friend discussing the wonderment of a boundary less world. What if there was nothing like different countries? What if the whole world was one big country? Or on a milder note, what if the best from each was imbibed by the other. The beauty of the possibility had left me delirious.
But as I write this sitting thousands of miles away from where I was born, the ubiquitous difference in everything from trivial to important is nothing short of striking. This paradox dawned on me as I watched a reflection of everyone in this part of the world but not a part of this world in the movie called ‘Namesake’. Very simplistically the movie portrays life of a girl-next-door who marries a PhD student in United States has kids there, raises them, and learns about love, life, accepting differences and loneliness as her husband passes away – all this while a part of her wanting to return back to her roots while the sea of opportunities for her family holding her back. Most of the movie was an exact replica of the feelings and attitude of any immigrant. There is a line in the movie where the protagonist says “Pack a pillow and a blanket and see the world”. But how far is too far – is the learning worth the effort? And if it is how long is too long – when is it the time to repack your pillow and blanket and return to base-camp?
Pondering deeper, all the discomfort probably spurts from a single big factor that fortunately or unfortunately as the global coordinates change individuals change. Attitudes, expressions, values, food, all take an entirely new and unrecognized form. Some might argue that probably the change is another chance to peep deeper inside you and understand your reactions – but when the difference flows through most of the things in everyday life the maturity required is quite huge.
Most of the theories of human behavior establish that individuals find differences unpalatable. We establish stereotypes and categorize people to make life easier for us. Ironically all the holy scriptures possess the essence that we all are ONE – emerging from one source and are that source. This practice is termed as ‘advaita’ or non-dualism where the seeker of knowledge has no individual ego or subject-object distinction and hence perceives himself as one with the higher power and everyone/everything else.
The way to dissolve the irony could be to embrace this notion and operate from a level that despite all the differences at the highest level we all are one. Neil Donald Walsh talks of spreading this realization as the only way for a spiritual awakening and hence solving most of the problems plaguing the world. Richard Bach espouses a consistent philosophy in his books and especially in his work called ‘One’: Our true nature is not bound by space or time; we are expressions of the Is.
Starting from our relationships, evaporating the individual ego there and then moving on to others, with consistent practice probably we can learn to accept or better still not be perturbed by differences.
The Hindu philosophy has these two syllable sounds Soham (He is I) and Hansa (I am He) which are said to be resonating through the universe. Embracing these sounds and hearing them inside oneself the world could one day possibly be one big country or as they say ‘Vasudeva Kutumbukum’ and we might not feel uprooted when we pack our pillow and blanket and embark on the way to learning.
Entering my twenties, away from the crystallized opinions in a warm, cozy, home as I took first few tentative steps on my own, I remember multitude of strange and new ideas all around me making me dizzy with a warped excitement as I breathed them in. Open and willing to explore new point of views I remember a great conversation with a wise friend discussing the wonderment of a boundary less world. What if there was nothing like different countries? What if the whole world was one big country? Or on a milder note, what if the best from each was imbibed by the other. The beauty of the possibility had left me delirious.
But as I write this sitting thousands of miles away from where I was born, the ubiquitous difference in everything from trivial to important is nothing short of striking. This paradox dawned on me as I watched a reflection of everyone in this part of the world but not a part of this world in the movie called ‘Namesake’. Very simplistically the movie portrays life of a girl-next-door who marries a PhD student in United States has kids there, raises them, and learns about love, life, accepting differences and loneliness as her husband passes away – all this while a part of her wanting to return back to her roots while the sea of opportunities for her family holding her back. Most of the movie was an exact replica of the feelings and attitude of any immigrant. There is a line in the movie where the protagonist says “Pack a pillow and a blanket and see the world”. But how far is too far – is the learning worth the effort? And if it is how long is too long – when is it the time to repack your pillow and blanket and return to base-camp?
Pondering deeper, all the discomfort probably spurts from a single big factor that fortunately or unfortunately as the global coordinates change individuals change. Attitudes, expressions, values, food, all take an entirely new and unrecognized form. Some might argue that probably the change is another chance to peep deeper inside you and understand your reactions – but when the difference flows through most of the things in everyday life the maturity required is quite huge.
Most of the theories of human behavior establish that individuals find differences unpalatable. We establish stereotypes and categorize people to make life easier for us. Ironically all the holy scriptures possess the essence that we all are ONE – emerging from one source and are that source. This practice is termed as ‘advaita’ or non-dualism where the seeker of knowledge has no individual ego or subject-object distinction and hence perceives himself as one with the higher power and everyone/everything else.
The way to dissolve the irony could be to embrace this notion and operate from a level that despite all the differences at the highest level we all are one. Neil Donald Walsh talks of spreading this realization as the only way for a spiritual awakening and hence solving most of the problems plaguing the world. Richard Bach espouses a consistent philosophy in his books and especially in his work called ‘One’: Our true nature is not bound by space or time; we are expressions of the Is.
Starting from our relationships, evaporating the individual ego there and then moving on to others, with consistent practice probably we can learn to accept or better still not be perturbed by differences.
The Hindu philosophy has these two syllable sounds Soham (He is I) and Hansa (I am He) which are said to be resonating through the universe. Embracing these sounds and hearing them inside oneself the world could one day possibly be one big country or as they say ‘Vasudeva Kutumbukum’ and we might not feel uprooted when we pack our pillow and blanket and embark on the way to learning.
posted by Garima at 4:57 AM
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