Journey to becoming better human being – 49

Why what is happenings - ‘nowadays’ - disturb us?

 

Jayesh was telling about his uncle who was very disturbed. His son had gone to USA for further studies and had just informed that he plans to settle there. When the son was going abroad the father was very happy. In fact, he struggled hard to raise money for his going. Then why is he disturbed now? We proposed that for discussion in our weekly meeting.

 

“We initiate a change process but when the outcome comes, it clashes with our formation values and we experience it as an inner loss.”

 

Intriguing! As always in these meetings, we get to see a very different perspective of our everyday life. As we discussed, we realised that we get our children educated and when they grow up, we find their language, dressing, aspirations, mannerism etc. very different from our habitual preference. It is common to hear the phrase ‘Aaj Kaal ke Bachhe’ (children ‘nowadays’). The perceptions of these changes begin with mild fascination and eventually grow into a virtual war between generations. The changes were initiated by us only, through getting them educated. But the outcome makes us miserable.

 

We call their new behaviour a ‘deviation’. Some of us would be vocal and express our disapproval, while others would quietly accept it as unavoidable. What matters is that there is indeed a sense of inner loss. 

 

“When a generation gets power, it tends to give external expression to the myths and theories, the desires, appetites, and values of its formative landscapes,”

 

We realized, it is so true. When nobody is ready to listen to us, we can’t help it and so remain just grumbling. But as soon as someone is ready to listen to us, or has to listen to us, then we assume the power and use it to impose the views and ‘teaching’ based on our formation years as the real values of life. In a world that has already changed drastically, we try to impose our formation values as the only ‘truth’. How to dress, how to behave, how to talk, what to talk, what to value, how to relate, and so on. On every aspect of life, we have an advice based on our formation period with our firm conviction that those are the golden values. And despite our advice when we see the domination of the new behavior in the society, we continue to feel that sense of loss.

 

While wondering on this new learning, a question arose in my mind. What is wrong in teaching the next generation what we know to be good and true? As we found out there is nothing wrong. The only point to remember is that what we believe to be ‘good’ and ‘true’ is based on the values prevailing at the time of our formation which could be different from the values prevailing in the times in which the next generation is growing. We may not recognize the difference, or we may dismiss it as ‘irrelevant’ and ‘deviation’ but the fact remains that as humanity grows, the world view keeps changing.

 

“Whatever be the world view, each human being has his/her own Intentions or what we can also call intentionality.”

 

Within the values prevailing in the current times or handed over by the previous generation, each person has a choice of what to take and what not to take and not only that, he also has a choice to perhaps define an altogether new value. Each person has freedom to have his own aspirations and to decide what to do with his life and how to live his life.

 

“It is because of this freedom, this intention, that questions are raised, and new solutions are created”.

 

Thus, living with darkness at night was accepted as truth by one generation and the same was displaced with invention of light by another generation. Thus, came the wheel and the fire, agriculture and urbanization, roads and dams, cars and planes, music and art, painting and dance, religion and spirituality. Everything that we see in the social world around us is product of human intentions. Since every person of every generation has his own intentions, new answers will keep coming and this is how humanity evolve and there will be always a gap between the world view of the era in which one grew and the world view of the era in which one finds oneself.

 

“Even as we continue to accumulate memories, we are drawn forward by our future intentions.”

 

Thus, memories make us feel nostalgic, but it is our intentions of the future that determines how we interpret our life and how we move ahead in our life. It is all about the power of intentions of each of us, each human being.

 

Times may change, world objects may change, the definition of good and bad may change from time to time but all that happens due to the power of intention of every human being.

 

So it is one thing to see the world around us for objects, or to see other people as just a number or even worst as another object and it is altogether different to respect each one of them as human being with intentions that will eventually take the world forward.

 

Ignoring the fact of human intentions, if we strive to retain our formation values for ever, we are bound to experience that inner loss and disappointment with the changing world. We need to realise that we are not victim of the past or present but have with us the power of intentions. Similarly we need to learn to see each person as a human being with intention and respect him for that.

 

Brilliant eye-opener.

 

Realizing the power and value of human intentions I was moving ahead in my journey to becoming better human being.