Inclusive Opinions

Man is a social animal. Social: in the sense - one who lives in a group, subject to the demands and pressures of modern society.he cannot live alone—he must enter into relationship with his fellows if he is to develop and maintain adequate mental and physical health. In this process of interaction with his fellow beings, he tends to gain a few things through this interaction. And the one which iam focussing here currently is the impact of thought of one human on the other. From ancient days, Man has subscribed to intellectual thought as a means to improve his own thought process and in the process enlighten himself. Socrates,Aristotle, Pluto all apart being philosophers have imparted their learnings to the fellow beings.



Now when such a learned men discuss certain issues with the people, there is a agreed presumption that the one lecturing knows all and that his word is taken for granted. We have more people telling us what is correct and what to do, so to be happy in our life (Even i do that a lot ;P ). Even if we take the case of how children are brought up, the Parents more often tell the child what is right and wrong.As a result of repeated impression, the child gets to believe that with out knowing the real reason. For eg, One is not supposed to have a hair cut on Tuesday and Friday, If a black cat crosses you when you are walking, dont walk ahead. The work might go off fine.... I can go on and on, yet i wont take the liberty of boring the people who are reading this.



I would get straight to the point by citing a conversation i had with one of my alumni. He had mentioned about the greatness of Swami Vivekananda, and while discussing about him, i asked him if he really thought that Swami Vivekananda had divine visions. His answer was "I dont know". To remind you, i was talking to a person who was very well read and has read extensively on Swami Vivekananda and has high respect for him. Yet his answer was "I dont know". I was surprised to hear that. In situations like this, where i would have been asked a question about my favourite role model, i would have said, Yup, he has done this, and done that. And he definitely is a gr8 person, blah blah blah. Yet when my senior alumni had said "I dont know", he was humble enough to say that he doesnt know about this and that it could have been either way. He proceeded to say that he had not seen it so he cant say for sure, but what he knows is that etc etc... Contrast with him few other people who not only vouch for their opinions but tend to force their views on others. The irony here is the fact that people have opinions, but the way we allow the opinions to judge our life or impact others have a large significance.



Sometimes, we allow the opinions to over rule us with out really examining the validity of those opinions. As a result, we are left in darkness and tend to adhere on one thing. I saw darkness, because holding to our opinion is like being in our own world. When we began to consider other opinions and then examining the validity, we include others in our thinking and hence have a larger scope of things. Whether we adopt it or not is immaterial, but what is relevant is that we gave it a thought. Another thing i have observed is that the so called wise, never tend to enforce their beliefs on others. Where as the normal human goes around telling others what is his opinion and why its is correct.



If only we would start looking at our opinions and also start listening to other opinions,half of our world problems would end. There is an interesting thought about opinions,belief and view which i would share it with you. as of now, ensure your opinions are inclusive of others opinions too and your actions are based on whats best for the overall well being... :)

You dont have to be only a cat,to drink Milk

After contemplating for hours what could be the title of the blog post, i settled on the one above "You dont have to be only a cat,to drink Milk". To know why i choosed to write on this topic, let me narrate an episode which i saw in the TV and which left me very surprised about people's attitude in the society.

The episode was "Neeya Naana"(Is it You or Me) in Vijay TV(a regional channel in Tamil Nadu),and the topic of discussion on that day was between Professors and Students in college. If it was the inability of the Professors due to which Students dont concentrate in the class,which translates to poor performance or is it the inherent mindset of the student to be indisciplined in the class which results in his poorer performance. The debate went on for some time with both sides blaming each other and subsequently the moderator(Show Host) bringing out the main,relevant points. Then there were 2 judges whose expert opinion was asked. Initially the Professors were asked what kind of books do they read. And the majority had said that they read self-help books. Based on this one judge commented that since many Professors read self-help books,its obvious that they are in dearth of self-motivation, and are low on self-confidence and that it represents a lack of inner ability. This could be only as true as the fact that the Earth is flat...

To see that a person who is qualified to be in a Judge position has views like that was really heartening... Its equivalent to saying that only Mentally ill people should consult psychiatrist and only obese people go to Gym. If only people low on self-confidence read self-help books, then it would mean all the Great Leaders Mahatma Gandhi,Nelson Mandela, famous personalities like Anthony Robbins,Shiv Khera,Brain Tracy,Dale Carnegie were low on self confidence. They read such books not only to leverage their strengths but also to know more on what the great thinkers had to say about developing a Human personality.

My point to write this post was not to compare people who have read self help books and to prove the point otherwise. My concern is the fact that as long as people continue to hold such views, the broadening of the human's attitude in society will not take place. I read in somebody's blog that the AIDS is more prevalent in India due to homosexuality. But since it is illegal in India,people are afraid to disclose their sexuality(Not that I vouch for homosexuality to be encouraged, but it's just a matter of an individual's right and choice) and hence fighting AIDS becomes more difficult.

Also, same goes with the attitude with the Psychiatrist where we(Indians) believe that one should visit a Psychiatrist only when one is affected with mental illness. Not necessarily. A Well,Qualified Psychiatrist can also help someone to gauge his emotional well being and take measures to accordingly bring balance in one's life... I would just like to say that we all know that our attitudes determine what we do and what we believe in.

In this so called Modern,Fast growing world , dressing modernly or talking modernly wont make a difference unless we began to think modernly.(Holistic Broadened). Because some people have such limiting attitudes, it makes
others to limit themself from openly discussing their problems,due to which they lead their life along with their problems. Imagine if people began to think that only people low on self-motivation need to read self-help books, i can imagine a
time when no one will read self-help books just to showcase himself as a person with self motivation(though inside it will be a different story itself). Hence,You dont have to be only a CAT so to drink Milk. There might be others too !!

P.S: This is a significant post for this blog, hence i would like to thank all the near,dear ones who i have met in the Blogosphere, my faithful readers and commentators and also those who encouraged me to start blogging.My sincere heart-felt thanks to you all.