How is it that most educational institutions in the world teach us to be imitators and they never ask us to be ourself? There are good reasons for it. The most important reason is that if everyone becomes himself, he will be a free individual, a rebel- not a conformist, a camp follower. He will be a danger to the institutions of parents, teachers, priests, managers of society and to society itself. Every society is afraid of non- conformists and rebels. It honours the and yes- sayers. That is why everybody, from the presidents to parents pressures the children in one voice, to be followers, imitators. Otherwise they can’t be certain who will turn into what. If everyone is allowed to be himself/herself, it is very difficult to say what is right and what is wrong, what is virtue and what is sin. Therefore the society wants us to fit into its well defined patterns and clear cut moulds. It doesn’t care by this effort our individuality is destroyed, our life is ruined, and our soul is impoverished. Its’ sole concern is to turn men into machines so that the status quo is maintained at any cost.
It seems man lives for society; society does not exist for man. The individual has no importance. We are just the cog in the machine. It seems education is not meant for us, on the contrary, we are meant for education, for being educated the way the society wants us to be educated. It seems tenets and doctrines are not made to serve man, on the contrary, man is born in service of tenets and doctrines. It seems religion is not for man, but man is for religion. It is ironic that man is not an end unto himself, he is just a means. And things that are meant to be means have become ends unto themselves. This is the danger and curse of imitation that man has been reduced into a thing, a non- entity. Imitation is destructive, it kills the individual. And this danger is not circumstantial, it is inner, the spiritual. It is a kind of slow poisoning of the soul. Whether we imitate Krishna, Jesus or Buddha, it makes no difference- all imitations are suicidal. There is no mould, no pattern, no type into which we, humans can be fitted. Every person is a unique and different individual, and we are meant to be our self. This is our freedom and our birth right. It is our destiny.
So when we discuss about Krishna, let us not think even mistakenly that we have to be like Krishna. Every suffering that comes to humanity from external sources is secondary. It is the suffering that comes from imitation and following brings in its wake is real and colossal. We cannot become like Krishna and Jesus without becoming dead. And it is only dead people who are afraid of everything. A man who is fully alive is himself, and he does not imitate. And an alive man, areal individual is not afraid of society. On the contrary, the society is afraid of him. And that is why the society condemns him. It is amusing that every society slanders and condemns the free individual, who is the only free individual, who is the only alive person- but this not the whole story. The free individual is condemned in the beginning and worshiped and adored in the end. And a really alive person is not afraid of condemnation, ostracism, even crusification. Krishna, Jesus and Buddha are few rare beings in the man’s history who chose to be themselves. They were not concerned about what we say about them. Discussion will continue ...
Dr Dwarakanath, Mitran Foundation
The stress management people
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