Janki Santoke.
Desires make one fly in the face of reality. Something is staring us in the face. But we don’t see it. This is because we long for it to be something else. Our attention is waylaid. We have an impractical idea. We long for it to work. So we believe it will! It is a fool’s paradise. Thus the mind swings between hope and agitation. Hope that it will work. Agitation when it doesn’t. How many hopes transmute into satisfaction? Disastrous marriages, suicidal business decisions all come from the clamour of desires over objectivity. Objectivity is the hallmark of spirituality.
To even succeed one needs to be objective. To take a good steady look at the reality of the situation. The whole situation. We tend to see one aspect and get carried away. That is what the Gita calls ‘tamasic knowledge’. To see one part and believe it to be the whole. We see a person speak sweetly and colour his whole personality with it. We see another speak gruffly and come to conclusions about the rest of his personality. Never questioning whether any of those conclusions are justified. One member of a community cheats us. We label the whole community as cheats. One investment in shares works out well, we declare there is no investment like the share market.
We get so involved in a situation that we lose objectivity entirely. To look at something steadily and look at it whole is the art of objectivity. It is the secret of both happiness and success. To practice it one must be able to take a step back from the situation, give it some elbowroom, watch it dispassionately.
But that is easier said than done. We need tools to accomplish this. The best way to gain objectivity is to remove selfishness. The more one is carried away with the ‘I want’ the more difficult is it to be objective.
If we were to look at the same situation from a higher or more unselfish perspective, we would gain instant objectivity. To be objective in life one must pitch up a higher ideal. An ideal is a goal that caters to more than me, myself and my family. An ideal envisages the welfare of a larger circle, a wider community. It could range from one’s community to the nation, to humanity, to all beings. The important part is that the concern must extent to a wider group.
Once an ideal is fixed, objectivity is relatively easy. One becomes objective to all things below the ideal. It follows then that the higher the ideal, the more things would one become objective towards. If one’s ideal were the nation, one would be objective towards everything lower. That includes the states, the communities, the family and oneself. If one’s ideal were humanity it would also include one’s nation.
In the light of the ideal, one gains a clear perspective on one’s world. Just as an adult gains a clear perspective on the toy world he has outgrown. He clearly understands the value of the toys and the bearing they have on his life. On the other hand a child is completely involved in his toys. He errs in the way he deals with them. They cause his misery and his hopes. When a person does not have objectivity he slips in to making errors. His errors cause him loss and sorrow; heartburn and heartache; physiological and psychological illnesses.
On the other hand, an objective person gains success in his endeavours. He remains peaceful through-out the journey.
I basically learned about many of this, but in spite of this, I still considered it turned out beneficial. Good job!