Monday 29 June 2015

How do I know if I am right or not?

How does anybody know whether he is right  or wrong? After all, you are of a particular age, you are grown up.  Till this date, how have you known whether you are right or wrong? Often  you have declared yourself to be ‘right’ and often you have felt you  are ‘wrong’. How have you known that?

You have been told what is ‘right’ and  you have been told what is ‘wrong’. It’s a funny thing. Our benchmarks  are all borrowed, our sense of right and wrong, moral and immoral,  ethical and unethical, all comes from the outside.

Is there anything that is absolutely  right and absolutely wrong, and you have known it for yourself? Do you  see firstly, that what you even call as ‘my own’ judgment or the voice  of ‘my’ conscious, even that is a borrowed entity? You stick to it and  you stand by it as if it is something sacred. “This is my own judgment,  my heart tells me this.” But if you go closely into the matter, you will  find out that this is not yours, this has come to you from somebody  else.

This is the reason why, what is right in  one culture is wrong in another culture. People of one culture think  that it is absolutely right. They do not even know that it is because of  the conditioning of this culture that they are taking this to be right.  Had they been born in another culture, they would have not considered  this to be right.

What is wrong in one country is right in  another country. What is right in one age is wrong in another age. What  is right for one individual today will become wrong for same individual  tomorrow. Getting it?

Because all this sense of ‘right’ and  ‘wrong’ that we presently carry, is man-made. Man’s mind has decided  that I will call this as right and I will call this as wrong. And man’s  mind keeps changing. Even today, what is right in one religion is wrong  in another religion, man’s mind. What is wrong in one house is right in  another house, man’s mind. There is nothing absolute about it; there is  nothing final about it. It is not the truth, it is just somebody’s  opinion. You understand the difference between ‘truth’ and ‘opinion’?

The truth is one, and final, and  absolute. Whereas opinion’s are fickle, they keep changing, they keep  mutating, they keep evolving. Our ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ are just the  opinions of others. Others tell you that you are right, and you start  believing that you are right. Others tell you that you are wrong, and  you start believing that you are wrong.

Killing animals is very much ‘right’ in  one religion. If a kid belongs to that religion and kills on a  particular day, he would be told, “You are right and you have done a  greatly religious act.” There are other religions who don’t want to kill  even an ant. People there do not eat after sunset so as to avoid any  kind of violence. In that religion if you kill, you will be told that  you are wrong.

Now what is absolute about these ‘rights’  and ‘wrongs’? They are situational, time and place dependent. And you  have borrowed them. Because you have borrowed them, you are highly  confused, they are not yours’. Hence you are always looking at somebody  else to ratify, to verify. Hence, there is no conviction in your life.  Hence, there is no energy, because you always have to ask somebody else,  “Am I right or am I wrong?”

If someone says forcefully that you are  wrong, you start shivering, your so-called confidence gets shattered. If  ten people come and say forcefully that you are wrong, you won’t be  able to stand it. This is for the simple reason that your understanding  is not determining your ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. 

The society, the culture,  the family, the education, all the influences upon you, the media, they  are determining for you what is right and what is wrong. So you are  always confused. And when you are confused, you cannot move with energy.  When you are confused, there can be no real movement in your life.

Then there is another right and another wrong. What is that?

When you are really alive, when your  intelligence is functional, then from that the real, right happens.  Whatever happens then, is really right. It may not have the sanction of  society, others may not accept it. But only that will be really right  which is coming out of your deep, unbiased understanding, free of  beliefs, free of prejudices. Only that will be really right. Are you  getting it?

Try that out! And then you won’t have to  be dependent on others to ask whether you are right or not. You won’t  have to ask that. And what also follows is: Anything that does not come  out of your own understanding, cannot be right, even if the whole world  says that it is right.

You will be in strange situation.  Everybody will be telling you that you are right and greeting you, but  within yourself, you will be feeling miserable. Because you will know  that you are not sure. People will tell you that you are a successful  man now, but you will not be sure within. You will ask, “Am I really  successful? If everyone says that I am successful, then I must be  successful.” And that is really miserable.

Do not let that happen to you. Awaken your intelligence and then see the magic.



RD

No comments:

Post a Comment