Compromising Unknowingly

 

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Compromising Unknowingly

In life, we go on compromising without knowing, not only with society but even with our family. Even the people we love demand compromise. Nobody likes the individual; everybody wants to overpower us, dominate us. The husband wants to dominate the wife; the wife in her own ways tries to dominate the husband. The parents dominate the children; the children also in their own way dominate the parents. It is a constant struggle going on in multiple ways, where nobody is allowed to be just himself, where to be oneself is a crime.

But to accept the challenge and to remain in one’s self, in spite of all the odds, is a great joy. To keep our individuality intact, undamaged, in a society where everybody is trying to dominate … one should not try to escape from such a society. In the Himalayas, in deep forests, we may think we are by ourselves - but that is a false notion, because there is no context in which we can put it to the test. The society tests us every moment. And here, to be just ourselves, not out of arrogance, not out of our egoistic feelings… Those people who are arrogant will have to compromise, because there are more arrogant people. Those who are egoists will find sooner or later somebody else who can crush them.

In this society, to remain erect and stand by oneself - without arrogance, without ego, but just out of our silence, just out of our awareness - is a tremendous experience and experiment.

It is difficult to live like this, but if we do manage to master this way (it took me several years), we will find it to be immensely rewarding. We get the sense that even though society is powerful, we remain dignified and aloof – part of society and not part of it too. We don’t become slaves to society – we have the guts to say ‘no’ where it is required. Society can kill us, destroy us, but it cannot enslave us.

Through meditation we get the insight that our body can be taken away, but not our being, not our soul – that is permanent. When we learn to rebel and buck the trend in our meditative state, there is nothing that can destroy us and once we realise this, the word ‘fear’ becomes history. And that which can be destroyed will be destroyed whether we are in the Himalayas, or hiding in ashrams. The body is going to be destroyed, so there is no need on the part of the body, on the part of the mind, to be ready to be enslaved. This happens because we are not aware of anything more than the body-mind structure. We need to become aware of our immortality.

Once we have tasted the very source of our life which is eternal, then nothing can make us do things which are not in tune with our own being. We will say 'yes' only when we feel that this 'yes' is not the ‘yes’ of a slave but a person of freedom. We will say 'no' if we see that saying ‘yes’ will be only falling into slavery. But this is possible only if we become aware of our being, of who we really are!